The Anthems of a Generation

I spent four hours at a senior living center yesterday "job coaching" a client of mine. However, since I am not "authorized" to provide direct care, I found myself stashed away in the corner completing the crossword puzzle. Still, this gave me an opportunity to absorb my surroundings in the freakish way that I tend to.

I thought that I was in trouble because I was in for a four hour sit-fest and the only thing on the tele was Good Morning America and after about 30 minutes, classic music from the first half of the 20th century. I didn't think that I would be able to stay awake listening to classic jingles like "A Bushel and a Peck", especially with the 97 year old dozing off every five minutes.

When I saw three of the residents staring off into space, I couldn't help but wonder what they were thinking about. Perhaps the music was bringing them back "to the day". I could imagine the gentleman to my left, in his WWII uniform, with dark and dapper hair, dancing with a younger version of the lady across the room from him who's legs now no longer allow her to dance. I thought about the 97 year old woman and the history flowing through her veins. I wanted to ask her if we would "be alright", knowing that despite all the chaos currently in our world, she had seen much more and had survived to tell about it (maybe a lesson for us?). Knowing what she had probably been through suddenly put my historical lens into focus. We aren't nearly as bad off as we had been in the early 20th.

I determined that this music was making me nostalgic for them. I wondered what music they would play at my senior living center, assuming that they still exist when I reach that age. I imagined Third Eye Blind coming from the stereo and some young twenty-something sitting quietly in the corner doing the crossword. I would probably quip to him that he had it easy and that back in my day, Pluto was a planet, the world shit their pants at the words terrorism/socialist/wmd/swine flu, our economy tanked, we elected a dumbshit, then we elected an African American, American auto companies became shadows of their former selves, capitalism failed - but then wasn't allowed to, political parties became gangs and ruffians rather than representatives, newspapers became obsolete, iPhones and social networking sites ran our lives, and we became so self centered that we twittered so that EVERYBODY COULD KNOW WHAT WE WERE DOING.

What are some of the other things that my generation has to reflect on, knowing well that most of our lives are still ahead of us? Lets see: texting, sexting, the lost generation, school shootings, a rise in teen pregnancies/drug use, a decline in grades, a focus on college life rather than college, ENTITLEMENT, dressing like wealthy homeless people, spending more money on consumer goods than any other generation (but probably to be surpassed by the next), "pimping" out cars, Sparks, reality television obsessions, celebrity obsessions, more votes for American Idol than American Politics, disconnect, energy drinks, digital photography, online computer games, trying to recreate Woodstock, boy bands, Disney, crappy alt-rock that sounds the same, death metal heads exercising prejudice, Gulf War I and II, domestic and foreign terrorism, cotton-candy Christianity, computers, the Internet, green energy, eco-friendlism, volunteering, protest.

Sorry for the apparent rant...I don't have a completely bleak outlook on the history of my generation, but we are very unique. Still, I think that it's important to pay attention to the elderly in our society. Kids these days don't even respect their parents, not to mention their grandparents. The elderly today are part of the Greatest Generation. We are the Millennials.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5IfsNqJcmA

Word.