One of the great subjects that we teach our youth today is the perinial topic of literature. From the Illyad to Dickens to Psalms to Tolstoy, human kind has endeavored to put to paper, stone or papyrus, their story into the written word. What is it over time that we still do this? What is the lure? Could it be that the authors understand that what they write could be passed down for generations to come? I like to think they wanted us to know our part of their culture, what was important to them and the issues of life they faced. We see the searching of the soul it seems in every story, with heroes and villains, rich and poor etc. It just seems amazing to me that stories written 500 or even 2000 years ago still strike a chord with us. I wonder if these authors struggled with youth who found the classics boring and a waste of time. Why is it that the youth find this a waste. I think they have not seen the world yet and all the troubles that adults have seen and lived. The youth have not tasted adversity yet or daily struggles of life because they are still under our wing. They need real life to compare it to, they need to experience love and marriage, politics, war etc. I have been hard on the young for not taking literature seriously. Perhaps they just cannot do so until their soul has tasted the struggle of life.