There is Nothing New and That is OK

Posted on 01.13.2022

Mostly because I didn't want to title this piece 'I'm going to turn Forty in a month and I'm trying to wrap my head around that.' I'm sure we've all heard it at some point in our lives from parents, tv, social media, whatever. how [name for current generation] is Horrible. It's the modern equivilant of 'Back in my day-' and it is just as annoying now as it was then.

This started, as such often does with me, with me and my stepdad arguing. Don't get me wrong. I love the man. He'll show up haul you out of a ditch, make sure you're not hurt, pay for you a tank of gas, andm ake sure you made it home before rolling up that weekend to fix your deck. He is also bullheaded, convinced of his own rightness, and will often flip an argument around by framing other people as behaving the way he is; defensive and unable to take being called out for behaving badly. The argument itself is irrelevant though. that is just what got me thinking on the matter.

Then I remembered a song that played right aroun when I was in highschool that is rather appropriate:

Baz Luhrmann - Everybody's Free To Wear Sunscreen

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Advice is a form of nostalgia
1999 - “Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly”
2022 - “Do not overuse social media, you will compare yourself to everyone else”

“In 20 years you will look back at photos of yourself, and recall in a way you can’t grasp now, how much possibility lay before you...”
-and regret how much of it you let slip by.

Accept certain inalienable truths:
prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-
and when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young; prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

To this I have not yet fallen as blind as others, but I often catch myself thinking that how things are now isn't how it would have been handled. Then I recall all the scandals not just of my generation or my parents, but all the way back and 'in the end, nobody really cares. It's always been a giant logjam of selfishness.'

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