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[quote=Anonymous]The first thing I thought of when I saw this thread and its subject is the show the Leftovers. Did anyone else watch it? There is a character/storyline that is relevant. The premise of the show is that there is an event where some percentage (I forget what it is) of the world's population just disappears into thin air. No one knows why. The show is about how people try to process, move on, deal with this event.

One character is in his late teens when it happens. He goes to college. At college, he witnesses two students commit suicide jumping off the roof of a building. The implication is that suicide has become quite common because people cannot cope with the aftermath of the mass disappearance.

He quits college. At one point he joins a cult. At another point he falls in love. At another point he and his mother start a small cult, though with good intentions. He always struggles. Everyone on the show is always struggling.

I think life has gotten very hard, for everyone. I think we are all struggling. I think it is hard to plan, it is hard to distract or numb, it is hard to sit with things. I think college students are in an especially vulnerable time because they are on the cusp of both a form of freedom and a form of responsibility, and the uncertainty of the world makes both of those things terrifying.

I think part of the answer is that we need to be talking about all of this more, but I also think we as parents need to be talking to our kids, in particular, about how to cope with uncertainty, fear, disappointment, pressure. Not how to avoid it, as it is increasingly unavoidable. But how to cope with it.

I do think we need some spiritual narratives that might help people with this. I'm not sure the narratives of most of the major religions are helpful to a lot of young people. I'm not sure if they address the worries of our times. I'm not suggesting joining or starting a cult, but I do think some kind of spiritual development is probably essential for a lot of young people. I'm not sure how we do that.[/quote]

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