It’s been a bad year for the world. Not so bad for me, though I have lived through some serious personal tragedies this year; One quite recent and close, please forgive my absence. But death is inevitable and so far He is the only foul I have come across. God is still looking out. Thank You.
Lots of death this year… lots of bright stars snuffed out with short puffs of noxious air.. Heart Attack; the most common of late. Drugs, Unknown Causes. It’s looking a little odd.. so many gone so fast. All this year.
The most recent of these bright stars was Carrie Fisher who has passed away at the relatively young age of 60. This is the Princess Leia of my childhood… How many times did I play her in the backyard?
At first I thought she would make it.. if anyone can beat the Dark Side which seems to be snuffing out the icons of my childhood like the Nothing in the Never Ending Story; It was Princess Leia.
She had a heart attack on a plane.. lasted almost two weeks as she showed signs of improvement.. then, yesterday, she was gone. Was this a battle she fought? Did she need to stay? Did she not want to go on to what she was being called to do?
Who knows.. This is a sad turn of events, and of course social media is all abuzz with Star Wars fans all aflurry… I made the mistake of commenting on a meme that had been posted.. a meme which compared the new guy in Star Wars.. whassisname? Ren somebody, as a millennial to Darth Vader, who was supposed to be a Gen X er.
All I said was Darth Vader was an 80’s guy. That’s all I said.. even after a snarky dumb comment was posted in response. Why a response at all I don’t know.. there’s like 500 comments on this thing.. why was mine so damn noticeable anyways?? Trolls. Darth Vader was like 50 something in the Star Wars movies. The snarky comment was that Gen X ers were 80’s kids. Not true.
I did check the gentleman’s profile and he looked to be about 50 ish.. I’m a Gen X er so of course, he immediately knows nothing as he has already lost by answering with an idiotic answer and then going forth by not being in either or any generation in question…
Oh yeah.. He’s an 80’s kid.
I am 38. In 1989 I moved to Norfolk, Va and I was 12 years old. I grew up in the 90’s. Ran the streets in the 90’s and my generation of Gen X ers created monstrosities like Pearl Jam, Nirvana and flannel shirts.
I don’t know if this man wanted to be in a generation that he was not, though I don’t know why on Earth he would want to deny his as it was, I believe, to be one of the best yet. But Gen X ers are not 80’s kids, we are 90’s kids.. as much as we would like to be otherwise..
None of us were old enough to truly enjoy the cocaine fueled, rock and roll hurricane which was the American 1980’s.. but we wish we were and we have all lived it through our older, cooler relatives and friends. We cling to movies like the Goonies, The Lost Boys and The Labyrinth because we weren’t old enough to watch Nightmare on Elm Street.
Whatever the reasons we do this, our generation of Gen X ers has one thing going for them. If we do not all kill ourselves.. those of us who are left will be the last generation that stood between the good ol’ days and the techno revolution.
The last ones who remembers a grandfather who was born in the 1900’s and heard his tales. The last ones who remember not having a cell phone, or a computer. We are the missing links. If we are nothing else.. by default, we may be the only ones left who remembers that sound vibrates down a piece of fishing line strung between two cans. Is this useful? Who knows? But we will know. We will always have these little snippets of the past.
Even though right now it seems none of those things were important, this generation, this generation of X’d out individuals holds tight to those little candle lights, breaking when they are snuffed out and we are left to our own memories with no one to back them up… Books and journals with no references.
But we are… When we are in our 70’s the year will be in the 2050’s. Can you imagine the year 2050? Can you imagine a world where no one remembers a life without being able to just call for help from anywhere? A life where electricity was not always so available? Can you imagine having to entertain your little ones with no electricity for a long amount of time?
Gen X er’s unite… Lets start to record these things we know because we need to remember them. Most of us are in doubt we will make it to our 70’s.. imagine being 85?! But just in case fate surprises us like it often does (it is what keeps us around you know) one of us may find themselves surrounded by needy young people in the year 2050… One of us may need to remember how the boy scouts did it.. or how grandma did it..
We are going to need these memories.. we are the only remaining link.. So please. Remember and never forget those special, forgotten things you know. Write them down. Keep them close.