A former friend that I now cannot stand, posted the above piece on Facebook sometime back. Rather poetic, he referred to it as a haiku. I supposed it made sense to me up to a point, but after a couple minutes of pondering it and throwing it around in my head I can't help but ask myself, would the young (if that's who he was referring to) come to the old looking for sympathy if everything was so glowing, shiny and new? And at the same time why would they expect sympathy? Not that the so-called "old" would necessarily be unsympathetic, However one has to consider that the old were at one time young, shiny and glowing themselves and have by, chance, luck, fate, good fortune or whatever the case may be, have managed to make it to the point of being old, and there's also the possibility that at some point in this period of age that they've witnessed the foolishness and risky behavior that comes with youth and with no ill will or bad intentions, simply meaning to warns of potential perils of said risky endeavors and only to be told to "fuck off old man/woman! You don't know what you're talking about, how could you know, you're just a stupid old man who couldn't possibly know fun and adventure of the young!" (keep in mind I know this isn't the way that young people talk but it basically IS the way their minds perceive the old) From that point, both go their separate ways, the young one feeling smug in youthful ignorance, the old one feeling indifferent in his wisdom knowing that time will catch up with with all.
There's a popular catch phrase that's been around through the decades and popular with the rebelious "FTW!" (Although it's come to my attention recently that FTW no longer stand for "Fuck The World", the new generation has taken it upon themselves to change it to "For The Win". Gross...) types that goes, "Live fast, die young, leave a pretty corpse!" Well, that's a myth, or in other words, complete and total load of shit. First of all, there's no dignity in death. When young people die, it's usually of unnatural causes, particularly when said young people are the type to spout of stupid fucking sayings like the one mentioned. Those kind of "live fast" deaths are usually and statistically murders, suicides, drug overdoses, car accidents, alcohol poisonings and other "glamorous" things like that. Take Elvis Presley, only 35, fat, naked and bloated on the toilet. Ever seen the post-mortem pics of Marilyn Monroe with her saggy purple face? If you haven't it's all on the internet and easy to find, they were far from pretty and that's the point I'm trying to make, all that nonsense is just a buncha yap spewing out of the hole from some drunken, insecure, neurotic, over-payed rock star who's living a lifestyle that you will probably never EVER be able to afford. On a personal level I can only guess since I'm not quite there yet, but the simple reality of it all, is not so much that the old have lost the ability to see life as glowing, shiny and new, it's just that they see life on a much broader level and have come to appreciate every single second of it. (BTW, I'm not delusional, I know there's some bitter old fucks out there!) They know that their time on this mortal coil isn't long and I don't know for sure, but once again I can only guess that perhaps they've either come to terms or are starting to come to terms with that as well. I know that everyone's experience is different and I hate to generalize, but I'm pretty certain that none of them are gonna have much sympathy for some cocky youngster mouthing off to them one minute than looking for sympathy the next when life throws them a fucking curve ball.
As far as my own outlook on this subject matter goes, as far as what todays youth is calling "glowing shiny and new", I'm sorry, but I beg to differ. Sorry kids, but you either need to try harder or at least stop trying to take credit for it. Everything I see the younger generation (those 15-25 years my junior) is pretty much the same shit my generation or the generation before me invented only this new generation went and gave it a new stupid name (like "twerking" for example), or they've stolen, recycled or played "mix and match" and created all these lame and generic sub genres and took the most corny and cliche aspects of the old stuff and made it even more corny and cliche. To me it's really hard to not feel nauseous and embarrassed for them, and I hate to say it but it's gotten to the point with me to where I almost can't stand to be around anyone under 25 these days. Other than that, I actually enjoy being older and am really grateful that I got to be young in the time period that I was young in, Something that I've had todays youngsters actually tell me they envy... Now that's fucking trippy, but at the same time, still gives me a little hope in a strange kinda way. Anyway, Thanx for the inspiration Vick, cheers ya fucking loser!
