I was just sitting here trying to figure out why my generation appears to be the unhappiest group of people despite the access to more education and opportunity than any other generation before us. Out of all the people I know personally in my age group, I can’t think of too many that are just generally happy people. Most of us are stressed to the edge and we can’t even explain why if you ask us. I know some folks with money. I know some people without money. I know some educated people. I also know some that are not so book smart. The one thing we have in common is the effort we put into never being satisfied. I don’t think we know how to be satisfied anyway. It’s because our parent’s generation failed too many of us and we don’t have enough basic foundation for understanding what fulfills us in life. Much or our value and fulfillment is based on material things. Since material things are built on marketing and promotion you are going to always feel like there is something better than the things you have right now. There are people who are happy and content with the things in their life but people look at them like they are crazy. Everyone wants to know “What’s wrong with that cat?” and “Why is he so happy driving that old ass car?” “Doesn’t he want anything out of life better than that hooptie?”
Maybe he and his family drive around in that hooptie everyday but their kids are all on the honor roll and they eat big home cooked meals every night. Maybe they have so much fun at home with one another they don’t care what kind of car it is as long as it gets them home. We should all be jealous of that guy. Instead we keep over extending our credit and ruining our savings trying to show the world we are doing big things only to come home and feel like the walls are closing in. That’s why we drink all of that liquor and smoke so much weed. That’s why we can’t sleep at night. That’s why our women question the man they chose to be with and the men question them too. That’s why false prophets find easy pickings among us because they know deep down we feel something is missing so they give us a safer vice to lean on than the booze and the drugs. We are all trying to lessen the impact when the reality hits that we were approaching things all wrong. We want to stop these brothers and sisters from being violent and not embracing life but we have the same problem. The only difference is that they chose to cross the line and risk their lives in the streets. The rest of us have chosen the slower path. I think that’s why we coexist with them the way we do. They might be tuning us out because they already know the truth what we refuse to admit.
This post may not be making any sense. I probably shouldn’t hit the publish button. I just want people to take a few moments every now and then to embrace the good things in their life and the good people in it. There’s too much self misery and all its doing is weighing everything down. We can’t fix the community if there are too many of us feeling broken. If I am not broken then no one should be. We should all do like the Harris family from St. Claude St. Call in sick, buy some chicken and beer. Hit the road, head to your favorite fishing hole, drink laugh and have a good time until it gets dark and the bugs start biting. If fishing isn’t your cup of tea then play this song and dance with someone in your living room.
Be Alright (LP Version) - Zapp
3 comments:
I don't usually think of things in terms of generations, because babies are born every day and it's continuous, there's not really any break. The only two generations are the living and the dead. But in those terms the generations are improving, and I'm glad you hit the publish button.
As crazy as staying home with my son these past few days has been, there have also been some beautiful moments with him, some realization at how much he's growing. It's good to stop and look around awhile at what you have, indeed.
PREACH GDmit!!
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