Random musings on today's youth

I was standing in line at Ross today which has copied, as its customer service model, the waiting line for the Haunted Mansion (without the fast pass option).  I was amusing myself by inventorying tattoos.  Tattoos were on my mind because of this breaking item in today's news...

Miley Cyrus has a new tattoo.  In her right ear.  It is the word, "Love."  Apparently, it is a tribute to her current boyfriend.

Well, at least she kept it generic.

Miley is not alone in her search for new places and new ink with which to express herself.  Summer in Bakersfield is a good time to go tattoo-hunting.  From where I was standing I could see the following;  a 14-15 year old with three hearts across the back of her neck, with a knife piercing the middle heart...a young man in a tank top with a tribute to a deceased individual on his chest, complete with photo and vital stats...a woman who looked to be about 80, but who was probably in her 40s (as my dad would say, "ridden hard and put away wet") with a dagger tattoo piercing  the side of her neck, complete with blue-green blood dripping down below her neckline...a young mother with full-color photos of her children tattooed on her calves...and, my favorite, an otherwise attractive young woman with a large spider web on her chest, a spider crawling down her cleavage, and the words "Black Widow" across her collar bone. 

While repeating to myself the admonition found in John:  “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment” (John 7:24), I had an encounter of an entirely different kind.

A mom-type approached the line and spoke to someone standing behind me.  "We'll wait for you over by the door."  I heard a teenage voice reply, "Yes, Ma'am.  Thank you, Ma'am."  My head was so full of dark thoughts regarding the future  of America that I nearly gave myself  whiplash, whirling around to cast my peepers on this well-spoken youth.  I was not alone.  Two other people had also heard and taken note.  In synch we all began praising the young woman for being so polite.  (We were all old people.)  She modestly explained that her "Mama and Daddy" had taught their family to show respect to all adults by using "Sir and Ma'am" and behaving courteously.  Well done, Mom and Dad.

Some of my Beehives, and many of the other youth I come into contact with, are of the belief that their public language, behavior and appearance should be immune from public scrutiny because "it isn't nice to judge other people."   Certainly, we aren't meant to step on God's toes by attempting to measure what's in another's heart, but we DO make daily assessments about people based on very limited information.  Knowing nothing about this young lady except the few words I heard her speak, I formed a favorable impression of her.  I don't know whether she had any tattoos or not...but it doesn't matter.