Do I Seem Old?

So, do I seem old to you? Old beyond my expiration date? I’ve boomed my way into old(er) age and landed flat on my fat boomer ass. It’s been a wild ride and looking back there have been some mistakes made. Lots of them. Here I am along with my cohort, other boomers who boomed ourselves right into the 21st century, still here for the second roaring 20’s. Maybe they will be just as fun and raucous as the ones our grandparents lived through. Only time will tell.

We boomers lived during an era of pushing for civil rights, war protesting, and waves of feminism. We grew our hair out, rebelled against “the man,” reveled in new womanhood, predicted changes, a new day, a new way of doing things. And here we still are. We still have racism, wars, and women still can’t get out of the metaphorical kitchen.

You don’t need to thank us. We said the same things once upon a time that you are now saying to us. We proudly told our elders that we “don’t trust anyone over 30,” grew out our hair, put on our bell bottoms and made all the free love we could muster. Now its our turn to look back and be reminded by the young ones we gave birth to how we have come up short. We were angry about the same messes that you see yourself in. We are angry that all that work seemed for naught. The only difference seems to be that you have better technology and pot is now legal.

The one point of pride we have going for us is that we have on our team Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia. She is a boomer and one of us. We were with her as she shot her way out of the garbage bin looking for the only hope to save us all. Now the story continues without her and the young ones are now the new hope for the future they will create for themselves.

The legacy we boomers left may not have been what we hoped. So, go disrupt the systems. Show us how it is done. Now that you have the steering wheel in your hands where will you take us? The question now becomes where will you take us? The future is now yours, what will you be remembered for? What mess will you leave behind for future generations to clean up. There is always a mess and someone will be left to clean it up. And you will leave that mess, be sure its a mess you can defend, one that you can be proud of. Be sure that you did your best.

You get to choose what monsters you want to slay. I’m sorry to say this again, but let’s face it — the Force is with you. Carrie Fisher

Originally published at http://textcatwrites.wordpress.com on January 4, 2020.