We had Mass this morning for a thirteen-year-old who died seeking a high from a combination of self-stimulation and partial suffocation. It wasn't partial enough. The boy had learned the technique from a "friend." I have two thirteen-year-old nephews, so this hit me. As far as I know, my nephews have actual areas of interest: for one, electronics and music, for the other, acting. (I don't think either one is into sports that much.) I know thirteen is the beginning of a really difficult age, but aren't kids into fun any more? Has our culture so brainwashed them that "pleasure" is more desireable than the full-person experience of life that comes when your whole self is engaged in what one author (whose name is virtually unspellable) calls "flow"?
Is there something we can do to help kids have fun again?
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