She's not here for your sexual pleasure

I get so irritated when men look at my 13 year old daughter

As if she were a cold drink on a hot day

She's still a child

Sure her long legs, pretty (unencumbered) smile and firm developing body

Could seem appetizing to hormonal males

I get that

But can you have the decency to at least fake it a few years more

Give her time to come into herself

I'd like to think she's closer to playing with dolls

Than sucking on dicks like a Hoover vacuum

She still has the wispy naïveté of a fledgling

The goofy/sweet awkwardness of a being in transformation

From caterpillar to butterfly

Give her the space to grow

Without imposing your lustfull desires into her psyche

Without imposing your coveting desires onto her

It's not much I'm asking for

Just a little bit more time for her to figure out

For herself

What her sexuality feels and looks like

She's already becoming aware of stepping into a world of harsh judgement based on looks alone

Give her the space and time she needs please

To come into herself more

Before you ravish her with your expectations

And fantasies of fulfilling your desires

She is still too young to understand what any of that means

She is going through enough already

Just dealing with her own changing body

Growing mind, ever increasing awareness,

Social structures, teenage dynamics, etc.

Cut her some slack

Before you label her a little Lolita

Because it was just like yesterday

When I held her in my arms for the first time

And promised to protect her for life

And you people are scaring the hell out of me

I don't know how to combat something as subtle

And yet so invading and intrusive

As a lustfull glance from an adult bystander.

Makes me want to wrap her up in a burka

To say the least.

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I'm not saying all 13 years olds are like this. Every child is different. In general I'd like to think girls could have until 15/16 at least to come into themselves a bit more before being assuaged at every turn. Maybe some girls don't need that time. I know I didn't, but that has more to do with being sexually abused at a very young age than anything else. God knows we don't need more of that situation.

And for you very few (thankfully) men that look at my 8 year old this way; I have some choice words for you.  Please go get a fucking life!

Finite resources

I was watching the toddler

Looking at family pictures 

As she is want to do

And she sits and points out toys we no longer own

And I start to think that if we had all 14 years of toys amassed

We would need several rooms dedicated to the task

And we are by no means a family of affluence

So how can it be

That we are so engulfed into this consumerism 

When I think I take an active stance against it. 

I know the earths resources are finite. 

Yet I wish we hadn't spiraled so out of control

I wish they made toys that lasted 

And electronics that weren't meant to be replaced every few years

I think people know this intuitively

Yet. Stress. Convenience. Selfishness. Disregard

Has led people to behave as if this should be normal 

As if individually packaged goods with tons of inserts and plastic 

Is a good thing. 

I don't understand completely and yet I feel compassion

For a society that has led itself down this path willingly

As consumers

And producers have complied 

And those that fight the tide and have been fighting it

Are sometimes seen as outcasts

For not towing the line

Following the status quo

It's sad really. 

To think that each of us individually

Could be doing so much in just our simple daily lives

In simple unobtrusive ways

To make the world a better place

And yet. We succumb to the grand illusion that nothing we do matters

That what we waste is ours for the wasting 

And as I try in my small way to recycle

To pass on usable goods

To buy used whenever possible

To use reusable containers as much as convenient and possible

To make my own difference

Without living completely without

I wonder

Why?

Why have we grown to believe that which simply is not true

To whose benefit is it for us to believe this?

I don't have the answer for that. 

I just know. We have to take these blinders off

We have to see how each thing we do and speak 

Even what we think

Makes a drastic difference in the world 

Not just our world

The entire world

Things must change

Resources must be conserved

Earth must be appreciated and preserved

As best we possibly can 

And we have to do this

Before we destroy it

Completely.