As some of you may or may not know the last British veterans of WWI died this past year (That's one of them, Harry Patch, on the right. Let it be known that when I am frail and wheelchair-bound that I, too, wish to be showered with rose petals wherever I go). Also last year, my great-grandmother reached the venerable age of 100. Thinking about this, I realized she has lived through the fall of the great European Empires, lived through the rise and fall of the USSR... an incredible amount of history in a single person.
Two points. First, the people around me, particularly the elderly, have a vast treasure trove of experiences that I, or we (of this generation), will never have. Second, we will (hopefully) be those ancient sages when we are great-grandparents. We are living through the creation of history with every day we live. I mean, our generation was born when Yugoslavia was a country. It is now eight, soon to be nine, petty states. This is kinda big! This is stuff we should be paying attention to and remembering for our grandchildren! (That's right, kiddies, when granddad was a kid Kosovo wasn't even a nation *grumble grumble grumble*)
This leads me to this years resolutions.
~To learn more about my grandparents', and other persons', awesome lifetime experiences.
~To pay more attention to what's going on in the world around me, to understand that I am a primary source of the history that is happening now.
Another resolution. To be the guy in the painting below.
There's more, of course, such as reading more consistently, making money, etc., but that seemed off topic after the reflections.
To end, a gift to you. A photo of Robert Downey Jr. wearing an ascot and looking confused.
I apologize if this post rambled a bit or seems pointless. My excuse is that I'm on break and I need to write something that seems at least somewhat profound or else I'd go insane.
Radiohead did a song this year called "Harry Patch (In memory of)."
ReplyDeleteKind of cool.
And Robert Downy Jr. is amazing in that movie. I wish it was more than just a rather entertaining film.
Garrett, I must say that I am impressed by these resolutions and may have to join you in trying to do these things.
ReplyDeleteThis past year I became much more in tune with current events, and it has made me more aware of the world and my place in it. However, it has also made me somewhat worried for the future of this country. Take this article for example - http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/12/07/watching_social_security_eat_the_young_alive_97536.html
Historical understanding of our times is a good thing in and of itself, I believe, but as the article shows, greater attention to pressing political issues by our generation is very important from a practical standpoint: ignorance to what is happening now and letting it happen will only cost us more in the future.
Forrest: Thanks for the song suggestion. Also, it is more than just an entertaining film. It is a modern-day advert for the ascot.
ReplyDeletePaul: Thanks. And that's quite the depressing article :-( You make a wonderful point. We should talk more about how ignorant our generation is, I enjoy this topic.
By the way, I enjoy the sentence from the article:
"There only conclusion I can come to is that we Baby Boomers have infantilized our children into idiocy." Infantilized?