They say when you get old you begin to repeat yourself. I have to agree as I do find myself having the same conversations over and over again. This is not restricted to family and friends but is evident on my Facebook page. I'm calling it a good thing, like recycling. They are just recycled conversations preserving thoughts and ideas for future generations. I think that maybe we do this just so we don't forget. It just could be we learn to live by rote ! There are things that serve as aids, like schools and universities that instruct us in academic challenges and then there is the school of hard knocks. In my experience we can forget a great deal of what we " learned " in school and be just fine. Forgetting the lessons learned in the school of hard knocks however can be painful, you get knocked all over again. And that is why we start repeating ourselves.
Each generation moves a little away from the previous as far as ideology goes. That is the discomfort we all experience at some point in our lives. The reason we start saying, these kids today. Those kids either decide to adopt the teachings of their elders, teachings learned in that school of hard knocks, or they cling to the teachings of the academics. The problem arises when what the academics are teaching doesn't really exist in the real world. It really is the old, looks good on paper syndrome. That can be further complicated when this new teaching doesn't require any hard moral and ethical choices. You can set aside those choices in favor of your personal feelings.
Remember the " ME " generation ? Yes, that is the baby boomers, we earned that label. Yes, I am one of them. Unfortunately too many of us baby boomers have stuck to the academic teachings and free wheeling spirit of those days. Remember when Timothy Leary was a cool guy and Abbie Hoffman was right on ! That contributes to some of the problems we are facing today. Many baby boomers have never learned the real lessons of life at all. Sheltered and tolerated following a war we were raised without making great personal sacrifices. That's why it was called a boom. It was a time of prosperity in America. It was also the first time in American history when it became acceptable to be unwilling to defend the nation. It was the first time burning draft cards, wearing the flag as clothing and total abandonment of moral behavior was " cool. " Yes, there were those that opposed all of that, that spoke out against the hippies but they were silenced by time. Mostly the hippies got a haircut and learned that you really did have to work for a living. Communes really didn't work, think socialism, and bucking the man got you nowhere fast. But many remain deniers. You can hear them denying it to this day. It is these folks that have taught their own children to be deniers, Now these children have no sense of reality and propose all this ridiculousness we see in the news. Gender identity tops the list in my book. Talk about denying ! But I'm not going into that conversation again. I will continue to repeat the lessons I have learned in life. I will recycle those conversations with the hope that they are heard and learned by someone. They are the things I believe in, the things I believe to be truth. I am not concerned with being popular, or saying the popular thing. I can read a book and have all those answers easy enough. I can easily repeat what all the talking heads are saying. The challenge is to integrate what is being said today with what was learned yesterday. It is foolish to discard the past and adopt the future because the future is always unknown. If you once decide to do that it will become a lifetime pursuit. You have to change every day ! It should be obvious that standing on changing ground will not provide a stable future. And so I will continue to repeat myself. I have discarded all the fluff, the idle dreams and fantasies. It has taken almost 65 years but life has become very real for me. Time is of the essence. I am mortal after all and tomorrow is not promised. Reality rears its' head and there really is no escape. A lesson learned ? Perhaps one learned by rote ? Is that the enlightenment spoken of over the ages ? Is that the secret ? Now that is a conversation that has endured. A conversation repeated throughout the history of man and one that will continue.
Each generation moves a little away from the previous as far as ideology goes. That is the discomfort we all experience at some point in our lives. The reason we start saying, these kids today. Those kids either decide to adopt the teachings of their elders, teachings learned in that school of hard knocks, or they cling to the teachings of the academics. The problem arises when what the academics are teaching doesn't really exist in the real world. It really is the old, looks good on paper syndrome. That can be further complicated when this new teaching doesn't require any hard moral and ethical choices. You can set aside those choices in favor of your personal feelings.
Remember the " ME " generation ? Yes, that is the baby boomers, we earned that label. Yes, I am one of them. Unfortunately too many of us baby boomers have stuck to the academic teachings and free wheeling spirit of those days. Remember when Timothy Leary was a cool guy and Abbie Hoffman was right on ! That contributes to some of the problems we are facing today. Many baby boomers have never learned the real lessons of life at all. Sheltered and tolerated following a war we were raised without making great personal sacrifices. That's why it was called a boom. It was a time of prosperity in America. It was also the first time in American history when it became acceptable to be unwilling to defend the nation. It was the first time burning draft cards, wearing the flag as clothing and total abandonment of moral behavior was " cool. " Yes, there were those that opposed all of that, that spoke out against the hippies but they were silenced by time. Mostly the hippies got a haircut and learned that you really did have to work for a living. Communes really didn't work, think socialism, and bucking the man got you nowhere fast. But many remain deniers. You can hear them denying it to this day. It is these folks that have taught their own children to be deniers, Now these children have no sense of reality and propose all this ridiculousness we see in the news. Gender identity tops the list in my book. Talk about denying ! But I'm not going into that conversation again. I will continue to repeat the lessons I have learned in life. I will recycle those conversations with the hope that they are heard and learned by someone. They are the things I believe in, the things I believe to be truth. I am not concerned with being popular, or saying the popular thing. I can read a book and have all those answers easy enough. I can easily repeat what all the talking heads are saying. The challenge is to integrate what is being said today with what was learned yesterday. It is foolish to discard the past and adopt the future because the future is always unknown. If you once decide to do that it will become a lifetime pursuit. You have to change every day ! It should be obvious that standing on changing ground will not provide a stable future. And so I will continue to repeat myself. I have discarded all the fluff, the idle dreams and fantasies. It has taken almost 65 years but life has become very real for me. Time is of the essence. I am mortal after all and tomorrow is not promised. Reality rears its' head and there really is no escape. A lesson learned ? Perhaps one learned by rote ? Is that the enlightenment spoken of over the ages ? Is that the secret ? Now that is a conversation that has endured. A conversation repeated throughout the history of man and one that will continue.
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