February 2008
Essay of the Month
FOREVER YOUNG
Bob
Dylan is 65. Pete Townsend, Mick Jagger, Paul McCartney, Rod Stewart, Eric
Clapton… all are closing in on old age. Even Sting, a relative newcomer is
beyond 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…and I owe it all to rock and roll.
I am a member of the first
true rock and roll generation and we steadfastly refuse to let go of youth.
Being a kid is too much fun. Becoming a "responsible adult" is too
boring a prospect. Nobody wants to become their 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. People my age, (late
"boomers" or "t'weeners") want to live out our dreams.
We're too lazy to work hard and too cowardly to struggle economically the way
our parent's did. We never bought that line that poverty and adversity build
character. That's the kind of thinking that breeds insurance salesmen.
My peers and I had everything
handed to us. We are the first American generation that was virtually
guaranteed a college education. Sure, we all had jobs, but only to pay for our
increasingly entertaining lifestyle. Growing up, we all had cars, stereos and entire
libraries of music. We were bulletproof. Our partying habits were legendary if
not infamous and our parents and grandparents were left wondering where they
went wrong.
Fast-forward 30 years. The
rock and roll musicians we grew up listening to are still rock and roll
musicians and like most of my high school friends, few have died from natural
causes. Our icons are icons still, only now to a new generation. Like Neil
Young rockin' in the free world, we continue to believe that we are
indestructible, engaging in all sorts of "extreme" activities. We
ride motorcycles, curse like marines and refuse to become complacent.
We have changed the way
business is done in America and around the world inventing high tech computers
and high tech entertainment. Fun is our business and business is fun. 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. Play loud. Play hard. Try everything.
Take risks. Excess is good. Captains of industry now do business in casual
attire. Honestly, who do you think invented casual Friday?
I worked hard when I was younger, in mindless, menial work, but my goal was always to find something that suited me, not to suit myself to the 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.