Waves

Waves

Bradley Davidson

It turns out I am a boomer. I am not just a banger or a bonker or a boisterous buffoon, a bellicose bungler, a brazen barrister or a brawling bickerer. I’m a boomer, a great big Baby Boomer. I never thought of myself as such, but the demographics put me right in the middle of it. So, I decided to accept my position in this generation with all the perks, privileges, power and authority which go with it. And with such comes responsibility. So, I am taking umbrage with what’s being said about us and am standing up for my peers.

If you read any of the current stuff going around, we’re trouble. We’re trouble now, we’ve been trouble and we’re really big trouble yet to come. Strange. I don’t feel like trouble. But the whole generation of us born in the post war peace and posterity of the 1950’s start turning 65 this year. And, it seems, our journalistic children and blogging grandchildren want to take a good swing at us.

So we were born and grew up in the midst of the political incorrect 50’s as we played cowboy and Indians in our Wild West yards and fought krauts and japs in the forests and jungles of our neighborhoods. We were given a long leash by our Dr. Spock-reading parents and felt special and independent which I guess translates into self absorbed and narcissistic. We were sent to a different war and liked the peace we were nurtured in better so marched against such craziness and became antiestablishment and organic and different and an annoyance to our parents. We communed and planned for a better and brighter world and sang simple songs together and knew that with a little love, humanity could live together happily ever after.

So how’d that work out? They say we are a disillusioned generation eventually bending to corporate greed and hunkering into 9 to 5 jobs. We lost our way, they say, and the world suffered. There are still wars, hunger, disease and not all people love each other. They say we abandoned our dream and now are not going to fade quietly as ego loving as we are and that we are going to drag down everyone else with the cost of our old age.

Well, like the waves of the oceans that crash upon the shores and beaches of continents, each generation slams against the hard rocks of human endeavor, eroding a little sand here, moving a few rocks there and otherwise reshaping our existence. Us boomers just seem to have been one of the bigger waves in this set or maybe even a mini tsunami. But every generation takes a swipe eventually receding back into that realm which gave us life until all that’s left is an altered shore.

So, sure we are trouble as every generation is and should be. I’m just going to keep on keepin’ on while following my mantra of peace, love and rock n roll and giving away a wee bit of advice to the younger generations. You see, long, long ago I was told if you don’t like the news you hear, go make some of your own, Grasshopper.

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