Okay stop right there. All we know about the child is this. She is 15 and has carved the word "empty" into her forearm. What can we infer?

She is white, middle to upper middle class. She's been in day care and then school her entire life where she was taught things that were supposed to be important, have value, and matter. She owns every electronic gadget available and has been online her whole life. Her parents are vapid, driven, and both work hard in jobs that make plenty of money. She has not been consistently fed real food. If the family goes to church, its of no consequence. There is no moral structure in the family. She is bright, she's gotten old enough to divine her own truth, and she sees it clearly.

“Our current version of success is a failure”

Wendell Berry goes to visit the wood drake under the day blind stars when he wakes in fear for the lives of his children, seeking the peace of wild things. I revisit all the new choices for parenting: hold them when they cry, sleep near them, don't leave them, feed them real food, practice non violent communication, teach them to thoughtfully question authority by thoughtfully questioning authority, and do it all with love rather than grim marching duty to archaic value structures and blind obedience to empty social values. Allow the children to grow as other mammals grow, in contact with the peace of their own ancient wise abiding inner wildness.