Today’s Essay
FOREVER YOUNG
Bob
Dylan is 69. Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart and Eric
Clapton are all nearer to old age than to middle age. Even Sting, a relative
newcomer is well past the half-century mark. These people are the icons of my
youth. It should be easy for me to feel
old, but I don't.
It occurs to me that the
reason that I don't feel old is because my entire generation refuses to let go
of its youth. Being a kid is too much fun. Becoming a "responsible
adult" is too boring a prospect. Nobody ever wanted to become his or her
parents.
There has always been
something a little cowardly about having a trade to fall back on. You know, in
case things didn't work out quite the way you planned, or to marry well. People
my age, (late "boomers" or "t'weeners") have always wanted
to live out our dreams. We don't care to struggle economically like our
parent's did and never bought that line that poverty and adversity builds
character. That's the kind of thinking that breeds insurance salesmen.
It's true; my peers and I have
had everything handed to us. We are the first American generation that was
virtually guaranteed a college education. We all had jobs in our teens, but
that was only to pay for our increasingly entertaining lifestyle. Growing up,
we all had cars, stereos and entire libraries of music. Not a week went by
without a trip to a concert or the movies. The partying habits of my generation
are infamous. We were bulletproof and our parents and grandparents were left
wondering what went wrong.
Thirty-five years later, we
continue to believe that we are indestructible, engaging in all sorts of
"extreme" activities. The rock and roll musicians we grew up
listening to are still rock and roll musicians. Most have not descended into
pop music and few have died from natural causes. They continue to act
irresponsibly well past middle age. Our icons are still icons, even to a new
generation, still at the top of their game. Our radicals are still radicals,
setting records for longevity as social activists. Those of us that set our
minds to doing something different with our lives have held fast and made a
difference.
Like Neil Young rockin' in the
free world, we continue to ride motorcycles, curse like marines and refuse,
sometimes foolishly so, to become complacent. We have changed the way business
is done in America and around the world. We have changed the face of
entertainment from movies to music to sports. Having fun is now our business
rather than something we do when and if we get time off. We invented high tech
entertainment. We have been thinking out of the box since high school.
All this fun and
individualism, though, has come with a price. We have among the highest
alcoholism, substance abuse and suicide rates of any generation since less
optimistic people began keeping these types of records. We raise our children
in single parent families, leave our homes for more money or more prestige and
swap "life" partners like flea market regulars.
We have learned important
business lessons from the rock and roll ethic. Never compromise. Don't be
merely different, be radically different. Bill Gates may wear a suit and tie,
but is a s radical as ever, tweaking the governments nose every chance he gets.
Mark Cuban acts the way you'd expect a billionaire rock and roller to act,
doing as he pleases, throwing tantrums and making having a good time his
business. Captains of industry now do business in khaki's and t-shirts. Casual
Friday has become casual everyday.
I worked hard when I was younger, in mindless, menial work, but my goal was always to find something that suited me, not to adapt to a job. Things have changed from my father's generation to mine. It has been 25 years since I've had a real job and I don't intend to go back now. I hope that my children do well in life. I will need someone to take care of me so that I can continue to be….forever young.