I have been told he will do counseling now. Actually, we have heard quite a bit about children having a problem because of the fight to open schools. A lot of children just are not doing their school work and we know they are having mental issues. We all are. Then the other side argues the health risks are just too great to open our schools, but I think the Catholic school has remained open? It is a real tug of war about which is the greatest risk. I think we need some structure and social contact.

Our schools are doing online schooling but I think we are about to learn the importance of social contact. The magazine I bought explains shared memory. It is amazing but our thinking has more to do with our group than we have realized. We don't pay as much attention to something that is not a shared social experience.

For example, if someone is talking about the experience of a group that I am not a part of, I really don't care. Please, don't talk to me about the problems football players are having, because I am not a sports fan and really do not care. I know I do not care as much about what is happening to people on the other side of the world as I care about what is happening in my own neighborhood. Those are big and obvious, but how about learning math? If the people you associate with smoke you are likely to smoke; if they learn math you are likely to pay attention to math. Isolated children don't have the group stimulus to learn. They are not carried along because that is what everyone is doing, and if their parents are not engaging and involved with the child's learning because this is really something the parent enjoys, if the parent really hates school work and tells the child to do the school work but does not become part of the learning, the poor child is going to hate the chore, instead of wanting to keep up with what everyone else is doing.

I am reading of social media and memes and I am excited to think some creative person might intentionally create positive memes and flood social media with them. I think this might be like having a parade of skeletons and baked goods of death symbols and music and dance, bringing people together. That is what a meme does. It gives people a sense of social connection.

We need to invent celebrations and memes that work with our human nature. We must stop ignoring our humanness as we have been doing in the US. Reading the classics gave us unity. They prepared us to be adults and to cope with life. I am now understanding this in a whole new way and why that is so important. And Jack, if it were not for your thread and replies I would NOT have done this thinking and I would not have realized what one piece of information has to do with another. I would not have this joy of realizing something in a new way. On my gosh, humans really need each other. :grin:

The poor adolescents who are struggling to understand life and are isolated and without the groups support we all need. I get it.

:worry: I can not have the effect I want to have on my granddaughter and her son, because I am old and not one of them. I studied gerontology years ago and just now I have realized the answer to one of the most important questions about if old people withdraw or are they push out? They are dropped out like the old shirt that was once a favorite shirt but is no longer in style. As much as that shirt was loved, it is not what is wanted today.

I am glad that my thread is helpful. I am grateful for you and all the other people who engage with me. I must say that I have found using this site as one of the best ways of coping with lockdown. I never that that I would spend so much time doing things online.

I am glad that your grandson is going to have counselling. So many are struggling mentally. One thing I found helpful is some techniques of mindfulness meditation, especially ones which are focused on watching thoughts, which is a way of shifting away from following negative ones too much.

But, ultimately, I don't believe that we are designed to isolate in the way we are having to.

I have also found that thinking about the topic about disasters and the state of the planet to be useful. Sometimes, I get demoralised about the possibility of change, so it is useful to engage with others about the topic as it aids thinking positively.