I recently met a young person who works as a staff member for Christian Aid. After university she did a year with VSO, then worked in an HIV/AIDS charity, followed by this new appointment.

She was truly excited by it because it enabled her to address a wide range of social justice issues together with the humdinger issue of climate change. The light in her eyes was a tonic.

As long as there are young people like this, all is not lost. The other picture we get of young people can often be depressing. The media tells us of mindless violence and the trivial pursuit of selfish ends. The feminist psychotherapist Susie Orbach wrote recently: ‘Nothing would excite a young person more than the ability to buy, buy, buy, and to be famous. Contributing to society isn’t what it’s about any more. Image is everything.’ Makes you want to hunker down and wait for the Second Coming.

There are two stories to tell, but it has always been so. Shakespeare wrote in The Winter’s Tale: ‘I would that there were no age between sixteen and three and twenty, or that youth would sleep out the rest; for there is nothing in the between but getting wenches with child, wronging the ancientry, stealing and fighting.’

But if there are two stories, I know which one I want to build on. There is a huge reservoir of idealism and good will in so many of our young people and we need to align ourselves with that, encourage them and thank them for caring for this old world that we’re passing on to them in such a damaged state.

If it’s true that we are all not so much ‘human beings’ as ‘human becomings’ it’s even more true of our young people. So let’s encourage them, applaud them - and pinch a bit of their idealism while we’re at it!