I do not believe in forcing the young to do things mechanically.
I want them to learn good judgment. Live their actions on their own merit and discover its outcomes on their own terms. More than anything else.
One must never cease to counsel them though. Whether they like it or not. Our job as I see it is to plant the trees that one day shall line the trail. Their job is to pave the road of their own lives.
One must always make sure though, there is always time for the young - for more time. That they should never run out of better choices to make.
Likewise, one must never allow the young to wander too far off their trails that they should accidentally have a mortal encounter with the hidden beasts of the wild. As I have. As many in my generation have.
Yet if they still do, we must fight it off alongside them. I know I will.
And if any of our young Starshine should come ask us, what may lie ahead - around a corner, in the dark, we might with them look ahead together, make decisions jointly, and walk the way together for a while...
Until they find their own feet again. Until they feel safe.
But the road they shall pave into the wilderness shall be their own. They shall walk all the way through the barren desert into the land of their own dreaming. And claim it.
And their victory shall truly be theirs.
---<--@
