Reflections in an Old Mirror 11/10/2005 Who would be young today? Many of us old fogies express a wish to be young again but I doubt that we mean it literally. The thought springs from a vague desire for a body that no longer aches in the mornings, for the energy and strength that we knew in our twenties, perhaps for the chance to live a life knowing what we know now. We are aware that there is no possibility of rejuvenation in reality, so the wish is just a complaint at the disadvantages of growing older.Looking at the world around me in my 57th year, I find it hard to believe that any of my generation could want to be young in such a world. Youth is fine as a concept in a vacuum but, when it has to be lived in reality, the problems confronting the young become very apparent. As just one example, the experts are saying that oil reserves will run out sometime this century and I don't particularly want to be around when that happens.By all accounts, the earth seems to be getting weary of our constant mistreatment too. Whether or not you believe in the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming and an approaching dramatic and catastrophic shift in weather patterns, the fact is that we have polluted our air and our oceans, destroyed acres of forest, encouraged the expansion of deserts by over-farming, driven too many wild animals to the brink of extinction and beyond. It's not a pretty sight to a generation that rejected our parents' misuse of resources; we seem to have made things worse, not better.So the young are quite right to complain that we have left them a terrible mess to clean up. I don't envy them the task. But complaining solves nothing and, sooner or later, some hard choices will have to be made. I don't envy anyone those choices.That may seem like a very selfish attitude but it's rooted in reality. My generation had its chance to turn things around and we blew it. Somewhere along the line we were seduced by the stereos, the cars, the big houses, the televisions, the labor-saving devices and the escapism of entertainment. Sorry and all that, but it's the way things are. And the best thing the young can do is learn the lesson that we failed to, resolve to do better, and make good that resolution.We haven't helped much in our education of the young either. As the beneficiaries of an education system that still believed its duty was to teach how to think, we really ought to have done better in passing on our knowledge and skills to the next generation. Instead, we have put them in front of televisions so that we can indulge ourselves with luxuries, subjected them to idiotic but trendy new ways of "teaching", surrounded them with entertainment and advertising, and avoided the responsibility of discipline under the pretext of being "caring". It's no wonder that the highest ambition of the great majority of them seems to be possession of an ipod. We have only ourselves to blame.The point is that the young have massive problems to deal with in the future and are ill-equipped to do so. They can blame us just as we blamed our parents but, in the end, they or their children will have to get serious about solving those problems. I wouldn't be in their shoes for anything.As a Christian, I can look at all this and see that it is just as we were told it would be: famines and floods, wars and rumors of wars, disaster piled upon disaster. But that does not mean that Christians should sit back, do nothing, and, with a wise expression on their faces, intone the words, "I told you so". It is in our nature to try, even when we know the position is hopeless, just as we will always attempt to understand God, whilst fully aware that His unfathomability is an inevitable part of His being God. Of all people, Christians should be involved in the attempt to preserve and heal, to turn the world from its self destruction.Maybe all generations feel this way; that after them comes the deluge. Certainly that is the feeling in Yeats' poem, The Second Coming (written soon after the First World War) which I have included below. But the thing is, sooner or later a generation has to be right...No, I don't want to be young again. Let me enjoy the benefits of my age as well as the aches and pains, have my gripes and my grouses at the world, and go to my rest at the appointed time. That'll suit me just fine.The Second Coming - W. B. YeatsTurning and turning in the widening gyreThe falcon cannot hear the falconer;Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhereThe ceremony of innocence is drowned;The best lack all convictions, while the worstAre full of passionate intensity.Surely some revelation is at hand;Surely the Second Coming is at hand.The Second Coming! Hardly are those words outWhen a vast image out of Spiritus MundiTroubles my sight: somewhere in sands of the desertA shape with lion body and the head of a man,A gaze blank and pitiless as the sun,Is moving its slow thighs, while all about itReel shadows of the indignant desert birds.The darkness drops again; but now I knowThat twenty centuries of stony sleepWere vexed to nightmare by a rocking cradle,And what rough beast, its hour come round at last,Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?
Clive
Supermoonman Awesome article! Graphically, i think this is the coolest blog I have come across! spectacular job! I will be sure to come back! Date Added: 11/10/2005
Gone Away Well, thank you Super, I'm glad you enjoyed the article. And my son, Mad, will be pleased too - he designed the blog, I just write the posts! :) Date Added: 11/10/2005
Ken This is an interesting choice of poem, Gone Away. In the collection from which it comes, "Michael Robartes and the Dancer" (1921), Yeats places immediately after it "A prayer for my daughter", the child in question being Anne Butler Yeats, who was born in February, 1919, just a month after her father had finished "The Second Coming". It's much too long a poem to quote, but in the final stanza and going back to the points you raise about the world we expect our children to endure, Yeats writes: ... arrogance and hatred are the wares Peddled in the thoroughfares. How but in custom and in ceremony Are innocence and beauty born? Now there's a question. Date Added: 11/10/2005
Gone Away Indeed so, Ken. I have known people who swore never to have children because they would not bring them into a world heading the way it seems to be going... Date Added: 11/10/2005
Janus First off..let me tell you that I loved the blog as always. If I could be young again I would like the clock to be reversed and live in a vacuum of when I was 23 and had more potential and at the height of my rowdy carefree years. Before the loss of good friends and when I was more optimistic. The boy scouts taught me, "When you leave, make it better than before you came." We would practice that when we left a campsite and we would clean the trash and restore it as best as we could before going home. We all blame the generation before, and feel regret for what our generation has done and the legacy that we leave for those that follow behind us. my friend Kon-Tiki posted this on a message board, and I think it applies to us all "Treat the earth well: It was not given to you by your parents, It was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children." (An Ancient Indian Proverb) Every thing we do for tomorrow, every blog or poem we write that inspires for the good of others. This is our gift for tomorrow, and our task. Thank you for writing this Clyde, and be happy knowing that if it inspires one person that reads it to do something good for the generation of tomorrow, it has served a great purpose for the future and for the God you serve. You have made it better than before you came. Date Added: 12/10/2005
Janus I get the quote right...and I mean everything I say. and I say Clyde instead of Clive and hit the button before I editted. Sorry about that Clive, I didn't mean to mess up your name. I am still getting used to not calling you "Gone" with apologies, A very red faced Janus Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away Thank you for the kind comments, Janus, and for that excellent Indian proverb - true wisdom there, methinks. I am always aware that I do pretty much as the rest of my generation - I ride in cars, watch TV (occasionally, but the computer makes up for the rest), have the a/c on, etc. The real sacrifices are going to be made by later generations... Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away Which reminds me, Janus - isn't it about time I was allowed to use the "D" name when referring to your good self? ;) Date Added: 12/10/2005
Janus Good self? lol that must be a typo. The "D" name sounds rather mysterious. =P I suppose you can call me "D" though if it makes it easier, J.T. is easier too =) Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away My turn for the senior moment. ;) J.T. it is then! :D Date Added: 12/10/2005
Jodie I really, really like birthdays. I like knowing I made it through another year, like putting another pearl on a string. As much as I would like my younger body back again, I like my mature brain more... Life is all about change. Some of the changes are awful. Some, though, are better if you take the (very) long look. Our lives are so short that it's hard to see how far we've come, and I think it's human nature to see the bad before the good (just look at the news -- how often do they run cheery things instead of gloom and doom?). Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away And I hardly notice birthdays. ;) But you're right about "As much as I would like my younger body back again, I like my mature brain more" - that's what I meant about the advantages of growing old. :) Date Added: 12/10/2005
vanessa Whoah. I feel like I'm being prodded with a stick here... perhaps I'll just back away slowly and inch towards the door. Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing, Vanessa! It all depends on where you draw the line between "young" and "old"... ;) Date Added: 12/10/2005
Broken Messenger Clive, I am just sitting at your feet drinking all of this widsom in. As a man of relative youth at 32, there a quietness about which you approach life that I charitably envy about you. Thanks for another wonderful article and perspective Clive. In just a few short weeks of reading I have learned much. Brad Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away You ain't no slouch yerself, Brad! That's quite a blog you have there and a series of extremely wise and well-stated considerations of scripture. I fell behind somewhat this week (have been ridiculously busy) but am slowly catching up with your posts. Excellent stuff and great comments too! Date Added: 12/10/2005
Mad I have an odd fondness for my tattered and wounded generation. That whole "generation x" thing was my lot acknowledging we're stuffed good and proper. What freaks me out is my generation's kids. They really are scary. I know you helped some of 'em Dad and also I know that no one is beyond redemption but they seem a hopeless cause. The Roman empire didn't die at the hands of barbarians at all, if the early vigorous empire had encountered the same barbarians they'd have had 'em wearing togas in five minutes flat. No what killed the Romans was the weakness within. Cheery stuff this... Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away All true, Mad. In fact, what caused the barbarian invasions was that the tribes outside the empire wanted the benefits of civilization without having to acknowledge Rome as the boss. It wasn't until it was too late that they discovered that just taking what you wanted destroyed the goose that laid the golden egg. But you're right - had Rome remained true to its original ideals, it would have fought off the invasions easily. Yeah, it is kinda bouncy and happy, ain't it? ;) Date Added: 12/10/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) True, things seem pretty bad right now, but then they always did. When I was young there was a Cold War on, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Before that Vietnam, and before that WW2 ... then WW1. Then you're into rampant diseases and short life-spans before you come to the Napoleonic wars. I don't suppose there was ever a moment's true peace on this earth in its whole history. I prefer to think of it as a training ground for higher things. Who knows what? Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away True, John, but the problems do seem to increase in magnitude over time. Perhaps each generation's problems appear greater than they are, however. Date Added: 12/10/2005
Lauren I've got to say, I'm 22 and I often wish I could be 57. To me, 57 will be a time of financial security. What I wouldn't give to have that right about now. Wanna trade? Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away Funnily enough, when I was your age, I wanted to be older too, Lauren, but for different reasons. But I won't trade - I earned this age and I'm keeping it! :D Date Added: 12/10/2005
keeefer What will be will be. Im less concerned about what happens to the next generation as i am about what happens to me when i need to be looked after by the next generation. At least when i pass over to whatever we may find on the other side of tedium, it will be safe in the knowledge that my generation; Finished off the oilcrushed burger boxes till flocks of birds burst into flames as they flew by chopped down swathes of rainforest to fuel mans need to look at books on the beauty of the rainforest Taught our children that wearing a designer label and conforming was more important than a 3 yr old in a sweat shop and individuality. Do you think George Lucas was making a social comment when he made 'attack of the clones'? Date Added: 12/10/2005
Gone Away Well, you seem to have summed it all up, Keef. Quite clearly it's hopeless (and so is George Lucas) so eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die... :D Date Added: 13/10/2005
Gary Clive, You sound like an old fogey! :D That's okay. This world system is doomed. But don't forget, God still wants to set up his kingdom here, and will. The story ultimately has a happy ending, and the couple lives happily ever after and has millions of kids. Gary Date Added: 13/10/2005
Gone Away LOL I am an old fogey, Gary! And, as such, I'm allowed my moments of crotchetiness. ;) Date Added: 13/10/2005
Matt I sooo wanted to comment on this this morning when I read it, but just had no time. Busy day and all, you know. First, let me tell you that I got here by following a link from John's SYNTAGMA blog (which is also quite excellent or I wouldn't have bothered checking out any of his links), and I left him a nice thank you there for leading me here. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog the last couple of days. So thank you to you as well for writing it. Anyway, no, I would not want to be young again either. I would just make all new mistakes and who knows where they'd take me. I have made peace with myself and am happy with who I am. I wouldn't change that for anything. Date Added: 13/10/2005
Gone Away Thanks for the kind comments, Matt. I read John's Syntagma blog every day and agree that it's excellent. He's also been very helpful to me in getting my head round this blogging business and some of its more advanced aspects. As for age, I reckon we've earned the right to be as old as we are. ;) These video cards you blog about - it's an area that just occasionally I have to get involved in (this ancient computer I'm using definitely needs a decent one but I doubt they still make them for its ancient slots). I'm a bit out of date on the latest and really must get around to having a read of your posts. So much to do, so little time... Date Added: 13/10/2005
Matt Well, anytime you need any help or advice, feel free to drop me a line at videocardreview@bellsouth.net. I'll be more than happy to provide my two cents and steer you as best I can in the right direction. Date Added: 13/10/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Matt - I'll remember that! Date Added: 13/10/2005
Dana What a great post. It blew me away and you are so right. So right. I worry about my kids all the time; about what they will face as they grow older and it scares me to the bone. Date Added: 13/10/2005
Gone Away Thanks for the kind comment, Dana. On the bright side, I should mention that each generation has somehow found a way to muddle through so far. Perhaps I am just being pessimistic... ;) Date Added: 13/10/2005
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