An Invisible Threat to Flight Safety
In 2010 the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull erupted, throwing visible ash into the air as high as 9 km (5.4 miles). Although the ash cloud visible by satellite was fairly localized, about 20 countries closed their airspace to commercial jet traffic, which affected approximately 10 million travelers.
Why were aircraft forbidden to travel flight paths far from the visible ash?
Because microscopic debris spread much further than the ash we could see. Those tiny particles could sandblast windscreens and melt in the heat of aircraft turbine engines, damaging and shutting down engines. In short, planes could fall out of the air due to particles too small to be seen.
It is not uncommon for great destructive effects to be seen from particles far too small to be detectable by the human eye. The ash from Eyjafjallajökull is just one example of many such objects, including viruses, bacteria, nuclear radiation, and more.
Examples of Invisible Threats to Happiness
The dangers of what we cannot see are also well illustrated in our emotional lives. Examples:
- Facebook and other social media normalize a great many behaviors that harm both children and adults. Attention-seeking, irresponsibility, physical appearance, and consumerism are celebrated openly. Photos and comments normalize behaviors that are seductive and dangerous to our emotional health and relationships. These attitudes are so common that we don’t notice them anymore and accept them as normal, even desirable.
- Television, movies, and social media portray children as loud, entitled, and belittling parents and society for not understanding them, which really means not letting them have everything they want. Parents are depicted as out of touch, stupid, and clueless. I discuss this subject in greater detail in the blog, Parenting in the Age of Children’s Disrespect.
- Entitlement and ingratitude. These attitudes are prevalent to the point of being normal, and they’re destroying the happiness of children and parents everywhere. This is being promoted and spread through the media and social platforms mentioned immediately above.
- Unkind, critical, and unloving words and behaviors occur so frequently in average families that they are embraced as inevitable, sometimes even desirable. But they gradually kill the potential for loving in the children and the parents.
These are just a few of many examples of behaviors and influences that are harming our children, and they are so common that we don’t see them as dangerous anymore. Like microscopic ash, they infiltrate and impair the judgment, feelings, and attitudes of our children.
As parents we must evaluate every influence on our children, rather than just shrug our shoulders, saying, “Well, everybody does it,” or “What’s the harm?” because we don’t see the immediate effects.
We are the most important teachers our children will ever have. We are stewards of their happiness. We can and must take these responsibilities seriously, and not allow “invisible” threats and influences to take our children from the path of feeling loved, being loving, and being responsible.
