Manifesto?

It’s easy to say a generation is full of failures.  “This generation is full of failures.”  That took about ten seconds.  Maybe less.  I don’t know my exact words per minute typing speed.  This generation isn’t full of failures, or failure as it were.  I do feel my generation is full of lost opportunities.  Due to apathy partly but that’s too easy an answer.

Here’s a quick story that I feel encapsulates some of the emotion of the age.  When I was in high school we had after school activates.  One trimester (yes we had trimesters, it was a progressive private school that shunned convention, which isn’t always good but more educational woes another time) I signed up for community service.  There were only a few us and we were bursting with smug hope and energy.  I say smug because we were teenagers and teenagers can’t help but be that way.  Getting upset at a teenager is like getting upset with a movie villain for trying to kill the hero.  They can’t help it; it is simply part of the way they’re built.  But we were presented with a problem.  We had to take the steps in actually doing something all on our own not just applying our youthful optimism and energy.  We had to produce results on our own, figure out a plan to act on our own.  Or at least build a proper plan and then the teacher would help us act on it.  This of course stymied the hell out of us.  I grew agitated as hell.  Partially because the other kids in class were whiney assholes and I’d rather be in a play than deal with those idiots.  What would have been great is if we had seen the opportunity for growth it was and taken a stab at making a difference.  Instead we folded up and stuck to bickering amongst ourselves blaming each other, acting like children or quitting.  Read into that as you will.  It makes me happy how much I’ve grown up.  Of course it agitates the hell out of me that I was that big of an idiot.  But age and experience brings wisdom.  Unless you’re just an idiot then it just brings back pain.

But I’m not upset at failure.  Failure is ok.  Not learning from failure is where I grow angry.  At least seven steps below hulk smash angry but at least two above stubbing my toe in the dark when it was really easy to turn on the light and I knew the room was really messy and full of stubbable (I know it’s not a word so don’t say anything) items.  And yes I am aware that makes me have at least ten levels of anger.  I get angry a lot; I’m working on it though.

Ben