Child in the Sixties
When people tell you their a child of the sixties, for me, I was a child in the sixties. Which I guess puts me at the very end of the boomer age. Strange, I don't fell like a boomer, yet I'm too damn old to be a gen X'er either. Still a friend who read some of my more serious work mentioned to me that, "I wrote like an old hippie". At first I didn't know if I should be insulted or flattered. Because I wasn't part of that bunch they were the weirdos that lived in the old Maddox house with a lot of smoke blowing out the windows. That Mom & Dad told us not to ride by on your bicycles near. But that is what he thought when he read my piece.
That got me thinking, maybe I'm getting too progressive in my old age. I always thought you got more conservative in your old age, maybe I just got it backwards? I was always taught to keep my opinions to myself when it comes to does things. But on things like Facebook and even LinkedIn I've seen some stuff I would never have said in public. Even if I did agree, to a point.
I read a news article that ask the question, "Are Americans getting dumber?" The piece spoke to people of varied backgrounds, age, & education. The consensus is Americans were not getting dumber, just narrowing the focus of where their information is coming from. I tend to agree, because as a progressive I could easily say people watch too much conservative news. But at the same time I can't watch a lot of liberal leaning media because they tend to do the same thing only opposite. It's just that we simple tend to pick one over the other and get your information there.
That said, being called an "old hippie"? If he meant that in the context that I tend to find my own truth, then he is right. I like things that stand the test of time. And, a lot of things my Mom and Dad said have done that, along with others have done that. So that is what I base a lot of my belief system on, along with some truths I discovered myself along the way.
So when people tend to push an agenda on me that is too rigid or uncompromising I tend to back away from that. Left or Right. I like things that balance and are proportioned. A sort of yen & yang thing. Right now I'm sure that statement has upset some of my religious friends. Sorry.
You know, I can't tell you how to walk your path. But if you ask, I will tell you how I see things. Today too many of us have become unyielding. So much so that we can't function as a society of mixed cultures & ideas. I guess I should be glad our forefathers had a little more vision than ourselves now. When they asked for the worlds tried & poor huddle messes. Compromise. Let's learn to do that again, and maybe we can became that shining city on a hill, we once were.
That got me thinking, maybe I'm getting too progressive in my old age. I always thought you got more conservative in your old age, maybe I just got it backwards? I was always taught to keep my opinions to myself when it comes to does things. But on things like Facebook and even LinkedIn I've seen some stuff I would never have said in public. Even if I did agree, to a point.
I read a news article that ask the question, "Are Americans getting dumber?" The piece spoke to people of varied backgrounds, age, & education. The consensus is Americans were not getting dumber, just narrowing the focus of where their information is coming from. I tend to agree, because as a progressive I could easily say people watch too much conservative news. But at the same time I can't watch a lot of liberal leaning media because they tend to do the same thing only opposite. It's just that we simple tend to pick one over the other and get your information there.
That said, being called an "old hippie"? If he meant that in the context that I tend to find my own truth, then he is right. I like things that stand the test of time. And, a lot of things my Mom and Dad said have done that, along with others have done that. So that is what I base a lot of my belief system on, along with some truths I discovered myself along the way.
So when people tend to push an agenda on me that is too rigid or uncompromising I tend to back away from that. Left or Right. I like things that balance and are proportioned. A sort of yen & yang thing. Right now I'm sure that statement has upset some of my religious friends. Sorry.
You know, I can't tell you how to walk your path. But if you ask, I will tell you how I see things. Today too many of us have become unyielding. So much so that we can't function as a society of mixed cultures & ideas. I guess I should be glad our forefathers had a little more vision than ourselves now. When they asked for the worlds tried & poor huddle messes. Compromise. Let's learn to do that again, and maybe we can became that shining city on a hill, we once were.
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