The Young and the Senseless
We reach a point eventually when most people we meet are younger than us. It was only yesterday when football stars were my heroes and idols. I dreamed of being like them when I get older. The time I was about their age flew by ever so quickly. My twenties are a blur of happy carefree days. I guess it was all action and little reflection then. Perhaps I was intuitively too smart to waste my youth being too smart. I had thought for food sporadically but always mixing brainwork with pleasure. Who of my generation didn't spin the bottle and get deliciously laid with the wee hours of the morning? The intensity and pleasure of those discourses in a cozy joint with friends, boys and girls. The surprise and anticipation of a possible amorous night with the bubbly girl wearing the short shorts sitting across on the floor. The music and the dancing, the beer and the drinking, the confabulations and the stargazing… and ultimately the graduation from college and the satisfaction in knowing that all concerned did real well later on and are leading very successful lives today.
No! The point of this brief post is not to reminisce over my past per say. It's rather concerned with a general personal observation about the new generation. I find that some of today's youth are taking themselves too seriously. I had the displeasure of meeting young snobs who hide behind their arrogant intellectual and moral ethos. They are still in their twenties and believe themselves not only capable of but compelled to prove their cerebral superiority. Petulant, grave, staid, drear, abject, tenebrific and rude they are with their own contemporaries and with those who are older. Well in all fairness, there were a few of them back then too but I think they either self-destroyed when they reached their thirties or were butchered by their spouses and kids if they got to the point of actually finding someone to share their miserable lives with.
Well of course most of my new young friends can teach us all a thing or two about the notion of having fun and enjoying what is arguably the best period in one's adult life. I have met terrific boys and girls in the last three years, through blogging mostly, who are humble, kind, engaging, attractive, charismatic but most importantly brilliant. They too are seeking higher goals for their present and future without ever forgetting that we don't bulldoze our way through life like colorblind bulls. They have mastered or at least learned that tolerance, respect, deference and benevolence in general are in no way an indication of weakness but rather of greatness.
Instead of substantiating the fact that I'm indeed getting older and start throwing advice left and right, I rest my case with the simple claim that I've said everything on my mind today.
No! The point of this brief post is not to reminisce over my past per say. It's rather concerned with a general personal observation about the new generation. I find that some of today's youth are taking themselves too seriously. I had the displeasure of meeting young snobs who hide behind their arrogant intellectual and moral ethos. They are still in their twenties and believe themselves not only capable of but compelled to prove their cerebral superiority. Petulant, grave, staid, drear, abject, tenebrific and rude they are with their own contemporaries and with those who are older. Well in all fairness, there were a few of them back then too but I think they either self-destroyed when they reached their thirties or were butchered by their spouses and kids if they got to the point of actually finding someone to share their miserable lives with.
Well of course most of my new young friends can teach us all a thing or two about the notion of having fun and enjoying what is arguably the best period in one's adult life. I have met terrific boys and girls in the last three years, through blogging mostly, who are humble, kind, engaging, attractive, charismatic but most importantly brilliant. They too are seeking higher goals for their present and future without ever forgetting that we don't bulldoze our way through life like colorblind bulls. They have mastered or at least learned that tolerance, respect, deference and benevolence in general are in no way an indication of weakness but rather of greatness.
Instead of substantiating the fact that I'm indeed getting older and start throwing advice left and right, I rest my case with the simple claim that I've said everything on my mind today.
Comments
We're getting older Abufares but it is NOT the years which count - it's the LIFE IN THE YEARS!! Remember that ...
Hugs! :-)
I wanted to refrain from the "times have changed" scenario, but it is inevitable - today is much more populated with people coming from different backgrounds and cultures, a much higher sense of competitiveness and the sheer amount of social pressure and things to live up to, buy, admire, and become.
When my dad was my age, he was in college, doing as you have mentioned above. Me, I already went through my first job (third, actually), fate7 beit w sayyara abl ma nefta7 eshya tanyeh.
I don't have it anyway as tough as the next joe, but think about it. In your times you had more luxury in pursuing life's precious little moments, things considered these days to be done in the two week holiday we get a year.
Which is why people have become robotic, rude and angry - because we ARE humans and we want love and we want life's precious treasures we wouldn't get through our jobs or fabricated social lives. And that's why now you hear of all sorts of depression, mental illnesses, and God forbid, yoga classes!
:)
Joking aside, I don't think young has anything to do with age, and I am not really trying to make you (or myself, for that matter) feel better, I mean it: you're only as old as you feel & you're only as healthy as you feel, period!
Rudeness is the most disgusting attribute of all.
As you said, our generation was more into fun and game but I remember people being rude in my time. This is of course a generalization but it is a predominant trait.
I know you too well to be certain that you are still as young as ever. As for myself, I'm getting younger every birthday. I think being in love has something to do with it, LOL.
Cheers my friend, always.
Knowing you as I do, you certainly fit in the second category. Perhaps I was a little ambiguous. As Karin said, Rudeness is the worst of all. Taking life too seriously, while it's not fun, isn't that bad. But taking oneself too seriously is a disaster. I have come across some young people who are a pain in the ass (as in hemorrhoids). Actually believing that they are too good for the rest of us.
Well of course there are older people who are like that. But they are so bitter and lonely nobody gives them a shit anymore. I feel sorry for a young man who is, how shall I say it, GHALEEZ (abhorrent). I always admired Hardworking kids. Yet they should relax and take it easy every once in a while.
I believe you and I fully agree. despite all, our times were much easier and much more fun.
There was less shame and guilt going around.
As for getting old, I'm not really worried much about it. My life seems to have just started ;-)
I guess you are partly right: from a time on, I've got the feeling that you MUST have a master's degree, let's say two instead. Otherwise you are a complete loser.
I'm a lawyer with no master's degrees at all. And I don't feel I'm a total loser, not even a simple loser. It's like if somewhere collecting diplomas became a priority in life.
I know very nice younger people, too. Notice I don't say just young because I consider myself still young.
;)
Saludos desde Lima.
Tenebrific?? I had to pull out my dictionary for that one. Unfortunately, a couple of our young compatriot bloggers are also Tenebrefic.
May they all have lice. 'Nuf said.
In the context you wrote you are absolutely correct. As a matter of fact your comment is more meaningful than my post in the first place because it addresses very serious issues in the parents/children relationship. Loving how your mind works as I do, I would like that you write a post about this topic on your blog. The world is changing into a more dangerous and deranged place. We are burdening our children with our neuroses. Unfortunately, with all the technological advances, with the higher standard of living, with more creature comforts abundantly available successive generations are losing touch with their basic instincts and with the true meaning of happiness.
You are still young and you will always remain so.
Complete losers are those who need the security of a diploma to make them feel at an advantage.
I should come to Lima... What will we have to drink???
Being an accomplished neurologist apparently makes you a terrific mind reader:-)
They inspired me to write this post, LOL.
Tenebrific is one with a dark personality. Even his sense of humor, if he had any, is obnoxious and macabre.
Intelligence and education do not necessarily bring wit to a man. Once tenebrific always an asshole.
Anyways, you see that easy going nature to your life ? well that is long gone, the fast paced nature of life makes a person progress far too quickly so thats why they seem gloomy to you since most people are just over whelmed with the reality they are faced with after college.
Being one of those "boring" types i can only talk of my experience, and that with too knowledge you become too aware of the consequences of experience and hence you are fearful of the risk of experiencing anything in real life and prefer to take the intellectual and idealistic path to things ... just safer
Welcome to my humble blog.
It is funny indeed that "we" repeated "we are still young". Those who did, in addition to myself, like to believe that we are "young" at heart. We may be totally wrong but there's a great possibility that we're not :-)
It wasn't much easier after college back in my time to tell you the truth. Your generation might be getting too smart for its own good. I have read a little of your blog and find you absolutley "unboring". Again, there's nothing wrong with handling the world seriously just as long as we don't take ourselves too seriously along the way.
Why are we becoming so self-centered? Why can't we disagree and be friends anymore? Why does each group of youth nowadays conform to a certain set of rules without much internal variety? Where is the art of celebrating disparity? Why are SOME young highly intelligent people so RUDE and Arrogant? A dumbass can be that but for a gifted person to be obnoxious is unacceptable.
And thanks about the "young" part. I loved reading that.
When I come to Lima I want to have a Pisco Sour with you :-)
We're both young, that's why we need to drink and party.
Cheers!
be it age, loneliness or bewilderment, i am realising that i am tired of expressionism and rather slowly attracted into a quiet, understated existence.
amazing and a delightful read, as usual.