When you've got as few years left on this planet as I have, it becomes bothersome when one of them is wasted. That was 2015. I'm not alone. Most of my friends and acquaintences are as old or older than I am, so they're in the same boat, if not worse. I'd like to have hope for those younger than me, but, well, I'm just not ready to believe that they're much different than their parents (probably my generation) or their grandparents (the preceding generation). After all, who raised them? Right. 'Nuff said.
Oh, I'm very clear on the fact that I have never, ever done everything I could to make the world better when I leave than when I showed up. It is not for lack of desire, nor lack of recognition, rather it is a simple matter of not recognizing what I actually could do and where I could best do it. I'm trying to make up for lost ground, but, as is so often the case, it's going to simply be too little too late.
In my own, very limited, very circumscribed way, I've tried to make you all aware that we're in the same boat. There is much more that all of us could do, but -- though the reasons may vary -- it just ain't going to happen. Why? Because we're too fat, dumb, and happy to make a difference any more.
It wouldn't bother me so much if so many of my generation couldn't do any better, but they could have. Instead, too many of them went for the brass ring, sold out, grabbed the gusto, or whatever else you want to call it. We had the chance and we blew it, because things were more important than people and having was more important than being; because we had got ours, and everyone else was left to their own devices. I'm not sure that a more selfish generation has ever been born. But no matter. It is as it is and there will be no changing it now.
My generation is the most populous that has ever visited Western Civilization. We had the quantity, without a doubt, but the quality was lacking. We said OK when we should have said no. We gave in when we should have stood up. We sold out when we should have sat in. We started taking when we should have been giving. We were finding fault when we should have been finding solutions. We were making sure we got ours and uncaring whether anyone else got theirs. We were placing blame when we should have been forgiving. And we don't have a lot to show for all our efforts.
Sure, a couple of us got fabulously wealthy and became heroes and icons for the rest, but in my lifetime alone we are also responsible, directly and indirectly, for the deaths and suffering of untold millions, because of the lifestyles we lead, the policies we support and the self-serving greed we cannot satisfy.
No, not all of us went along with everything or supported these actions, but we had it in our power to make a change ... a change for the good, for a better world, for a safer, less-polluted, and more prosperous world for all. And when you look at the year just past, well, it was just more of the same. We wasted another opportunity to turn things around.
I'm not kidding myself: I doubt this year will be much different.
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