Oh joy!! It doesn’t matter anymore—getting into college, a program, a job, a promotion, a relationship. What’s done is done and the rest is bonus.
Oh joy! Oh f#ck! Oh crap! Sorry.
Oh f#ck! The math is undeniable. Better do whatever you have been putting off now.
Oh crap! Born under a nuclear cloud, our generation has shambled into the anthropocene and sixth extinction—not in some remote distance but now. Will human brilliance and adaptability outshine our collective self-destruction? Or will our legacy be a failed future—our Sisyphean efforts and this beautiful earth, all turned to dust?
I’m so sorry.
Khati Hendry
Characterizations:
moving
I have to agree that our generation has many sins for which we need to apologize. The sad part is that it’s getting harder to keep my eyes on the prize these days.
It’s not all our fault, but our time on earth seems to be at an existentially critical point. The future is not ours, but our love of our children and grandchildren, and of the earth, requires that we pay attention and do what we still can for them.
A different kind of senior moment, Khati. And, sadly, a depressing but accurate one.
I am currently working on a Zoom symposium with my college classmates about climate change and an underlying theme is very much along the lines of what you have said in only 100 words. Even more briefly put: Are we now too damn late?
I mentioned Sisyphus for a reason—is there really any choice but to do what we have to, even when it seems impossible? In fact people ARE brilliant, we can see what is coming, and we have the means and knowledge to change direction. Still not the “political will” however. Is it possible that Mother Nature is giving us a “pay attention” slap upside the head with COVID? How bizarre that the end of our lives may parallel the end of our world as we know it. The future belongs to the young, but we can’t abandon them.
Like the Shakespearean Stages of Man, Khati, you remind of us things we no longer have to worry about, where we are now, and perhaps our regrets, with economy of thought and word. Wonderful RetroFlash on a universal topic.
Thanks for the theatric take on this topic Betsy—I didn’t know I would get compared to the Shakespearean stages of man!! Wow. A universal and very urgent existential topic in any case.
Oh dear! Are smart phones leading to possible mutation or evolution/de-evolution having changed our rhythms of thinking, behavior, and even how we use our hands?
Oh, Khati…yikes and egad!
Sorry for the yikes and egad moment—it just came out like that.
Regrets, memories, apologies–a very sobering and moving senior moment, Khati.
If we have any role as elders, now is a good time to try to provide any wisdom we can.
Good summary of our generation in 100 words, Khati. A different take on the Senior Moments prompt. We started out so well in our teens and twenties, how did it all turn out so badly?
Well, it was on its way for a long time, but we have arrived at a sorrier state than ever it appears. I was sorry to be a downer, but that is also how I feel about this stage of my life and this stage of humankind. It just means I feel the need to use the time left wisely, on many levels.
Thanx for the sobering thoughts Khati, may we each do whatever in our power – however small and inconsequential it may seem – to help turn the tide and heal this sorry world.
Amen.