November 17, 2005
Only teenage wasteland
Does teen love free of violence exist only on "7th Heaven?"

By Jill Brooks
INtake columnist

I read about the adorable teenage couple last week, the one with the boyfriend who murdered the girlfriend's parents over her curfew.

Now the saying, "Oh, those crazy kids" holds a whole new meaning.

I mean, what the hell?

Teenagers have gone mad, which makes me even more terrified of ever having a little kid who might grow up to be one.

When I was a teenager, my boyfriend and I skipped an occasional class, ate bagels in Broad Ripple, talked about our World Lit homework, necked behind public buildings and went home for dinner.

Murder/suicides were never part of the program.

His parents liked me; still, if they hadn't, it's safe to say I would not have plotted against them.
What the frantic kid from Pennsylvania forgot to consider was this: Had things worked out between him and his sweetheart (their love could, in fact, die on the vine due to his prison sentence), her parents would have eventually been his in-laws.

Think, kid, think!

In these tragic instances, I used to solely blame the parents; in our heads, don't we enjoy blaming parents?

But I'm not so quick to toss out this opinion, because somewhere in a young kid's mind must exist a drawbridge between what's right and what's wrong.

I do not understand vengeance. Parents aside, if someone wants to break up, they are simply checking their moon out of your seventh house; Jupiter no longer sees the need for Mars; they want a new cup of tea -- the sky is not falling.

When I've been the recipient of a Dear Jill letter, I kept it simple: goodbye.

Sure, the parting produced tears, plenty of chocolate eating in bed and pages and pages of Sylvia Plath for a couple of weeks, but then I visited the move on.org of love and got on with life.

I know plenty of women who've, after a heart-wrenching break up, keyed a guy's car, called all his friends and family and virtually sabotaged every aspect of his life. Not that I haven't entertained the thought of a poison pen letter or two, but this leads to bad karma, and who needs that?

Sadly, what teenagers don't always understand is that yes, young love is good love, but more than likely it isn't the only love. So, don't kill the parents, eh?

There is enough evil in the world; next week, I want to read about the teenagers of the world running through flowered meadows, laughing and embracing, merely plotting their life's work.