Point of fact: getting old is a mixed bag at best. With any luck, you gain wisdom. Without a doubt, you lose teeth. You’ll probably eventually need glasses. And then, oh yeah, death.
But I dearly love knowing that – even as the people I grew up with die off, as I will, too – there are whole new generations of amazing people who will grab every torch we ever brought to the table, and find ways to take it further than we ever managed to do. Because I know you will. And because that's just how it goes.
Lemme tell ya: change comes slow. The more decades you live, the more glacial it feels. But when I clock the world I squirted out of the womb into, in 1957, and compare it to the world I currently inhabit, it feels precisely like moving from a low-res Motorola black-and-white TV that took up half your living room to an astoundingly high-res digital screen that hangs flat on the wall. A process that only took me 67 years. And the difference in acuity is astounding.
The day I was born, 1857 was a hundred years ago, and I could not have cared less. World War II was only twelve years old, and felt like ancient history from another universe. But by the time I was nine, Viet Nam was right in my fucking face. We'd just evaded nuclear war, and the first U.S. President I recognized or cared about had been shot in the face, when I was six. Ancient history already, as well.
Women in America got the right to vote in 1920. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 unblocked as many obstacles as it could to allow blacks the right to vote. And both of those fights took at least a hundred years, depending on how you count 'em.
I grew up in the middle of their next growing pains. Joined the people in the streets of Washington D.C. in 1970, at the age of 13, dodging tear gas and sucking down weed as we tried to change things. And gradually did.
But god, did it take forever.
And god if it can't change back overnight.
So I do not envy the young people of today the world you're inheriting. And am incredibly sorry we only pushed it that far. I wasn't nuts about the one I got, either. But you play the card you're dealt. And if you're smart, you build on the best of what came before you, as you war and negotiate with the parts you love the least. In every case, a sense of history is invaluable. Cuz the second you lose track of the cycles, HERE THE FUCK THEY COME AGAIN.
Point being: I have enormous faith in the next wave of humanity. You are the next wave. You have more info than we had, by staggering orders of magnitude. You have more resources to bring to bear. You have the opportunity to see the things we missed, and possibly correct more of the mistakes we've always fumbled till now. Till maybe we actually fix them.
All this said: the more empathy you have for your less-evolved forbearers, the more you'll understand the situation you've inherited from both inside and out. And the more you'll recognize your own flaws, as they exhibit themselves. Because we're still the same animals. And the same rules still apply. Being woke won't save you from a world that's been fighting against waking up since the dawn of fucking time. And, yes, there will always be assholes. And, no, you will not be able to wish them away.
In the end -- now and forever, as always -- it's gonna come down to you. Your choices. Your wisdom. Your earned intelligence.
And hopefully, the love in your wide-open eyes and souls.
Wow! That is excellent!
And please…vote! 💙
Be wise, be kind, be smart…and vote! 💙’