I am sitting in the El Paso airport waiting for the plane to land and then take me back to Phoenix. It’s always interesting to be in Texas, but a visit to El Paso is almost a trip to another country.

The vast majority of the 700 kids who came out this weekend were Mexican. They are Texas-born Americans, but they are Mexican to the bone. There are always Mexicans at events I speak at, but never this many. It’s never comfortable to talk about differences in the races, because you don’t ever want to be misunderstood. But I can’t deny that these were the most friendly and laid-back people.

I’ve never had so many people tell me, “Good Morning!” Seriously, this morning I must’ve had 50 people tell me good morning. Everyone smiled. The teenagers were so open and ready to hang out with each other. Even the dozen or so middle school kids I met were so cool. They were open, friendly, polite, and made good conversations.

This is such a contrast with what I saw a couple nights ago at; the movie theater in Phoenix. Sergio and I to film a segment with teenagers explaining what it means to “hang out.” Monsignor Dale wants to use this video tonight at Mass to illustrate how we are a culture of “hanging out.” We spend time with other people, but we don’t really invest in each others’ lives. We spend time at church, but we don’t really engage ourselves. We just hang out there.

So Sergio and I sat on the benches and watched the 100s of teenagers hanging out in front of the movie theater. Judging from the number of people there, it was absolutely the place to be. But so few of the teenagers were smiling. They stood there with attitude, full of judgment. Pride and bitterness are self-inflicted misery.