As Gen X hits its collective mid-life crisis, we wade through a country that’s undergoing a political crisis. More extreme views appear to the left and right of a seemingly silent (and often bewildered) center.
That polarization causes wild swings–accentuated by whatever will bring the media the most eyeballs or ears–causes more of a feeling of instability (regardless of actual stability) than most are comfortable with. That feeling of instability further causes more polarization as each side becomes more and more reactionary in order to counter the escalating maneuverings of the other.
And my generation (Gen X, for those who haven’t been paying attention) is kind of at the middle of it all. In general, we’ve long been disillusioned when it comes to politics. We know they’re not pretty, that they’re often petty, and seem to almost always ignore sensibility. Even though we went out and “rocked the vote” way back when, we didn’t really get the long term results we hoped for.
Just like everything else in our lives.
But that hasn’t stopped us from just moving forward.
We’re used to being disappointed. Or being disappointments. Either way, the effect is the same. We often keep to ourselves, bide our time while the water is rough (which is sometimes more hard work than is readily visible), and hope for that day when the skies clear up and we can actually accomplish the big things we’ve always wanted to do.
Thing is, the weather never seems to clear up.
And now… now we find that half of our own lives are gone.
We’ve worked harder than most seem to realize. Quietly, for the most part. But we’ve had a lot of that work destroyed before we could make use of it. So we have little to show for it.
And now… now just finding work is a long-term, full-time, unpaid job. Is it any wonder people are just giving up?
We were raised by the first TV generation and have been soaking in media hype and marketing messages for our entire lives. Celebrity leaves as bad a taste in our mouths as politics does… and half the time the two are closely intertwined, anyway.
Half of our lives are gone and, yeah, we’re likely kind of bitter about it.
But that doesn’t stop us from continuing to move onward.
That’s the only thing we’ve ever known: that the horizon is where we should be.
And it’s always just a wee bit farther out.
Sometimes it’s obscured by a haze (of politics, of entertainment, of hype)… but we’ve been trained to know the general direction, regardless.
We move, always. Slowly at times. And we’re getting old and want to rest.
If only we really knew how.
