Call me a relic, call me what you will

I think that one of the dirtiest tricks time plays on us isn't that we get to watch those around us die, or that our minds become dull like an abused pocket knife. I think it's the illusion that we stay exactly the same while the world goes on, and goes to mad.

I spent some time with my parents the other week as we vacationed together and attended not one, but two family reunions. Somewhere along the way she made a comment about how dumb flat-brimmed baseball caps are. Why on earth are they catching on. Why would anyone wear one.

Fashion. It's fashion. I won't claim that they catch my fancy either, but the world evolves. It's scary how out-of-date everyone looks in a school yearbook from just 15 years ago. I don't think there's a single yearbook that ages well, where people today would look at it and say, "Yeah, I totally dig that hairstyle and those glasses. I have no idea why they never went out of style." Makes you wonder all the horrible things that we're wearing now that will look stupid a few more years down the road.

There's this old lady I tutored for a time, and now occasionally help with computer problems. All the time she remarks about how, as a young lady, people were so much nicer and kind. No one stole anything, there was less crime, and overall the world was a much safer place to be.

I think that, as a whole, society tends to favour the younger generation and looks fondly on a certain degree of naiveness. I've enjoyed the benefits of that so far, and I can already see that as I age those benefits are starting to wear off. It's just how it is. And as for crime and safety... Statistically speaking, things are better now more than they've ever been.

There's this older guy I know, who isn't aging to well. He'll be on oxygen for the rest of his life, doesn't have a lot of money, and drives a used minivan. He's gifted me his bicycle (because he's too weak to ride) and sold me his DSLR (too heavy to old). He's a kind dude, has some amazing stories and a treasure-trove of skills, but can be pretty depressing to be around. He talks about how there's nothing these days to enjoy and the world is miserable. I was at a party with him once and a few of us were discussion music when he remarked that "The Beatles ruined rock and roll, and there hasn't been anything good on the radio ever since." If you go to YouTube and look through the comments for any The Band or Led Zeppelin videos, you'll see the same sentiment repeated ad naseum. Commenters coming along, with an air of objective, non-biased authority to assert their utterly biased opinion that "music these days just isn't what it used to be."

Now, I undoubtedly skew towards enjoying older music myself, but that above statement is so full of self-important crap, from people who miss their youth so much that they need to tell themselves that their early-adulthood culture was superior to any and all others. Newsflash. Before the older generation was complaining about pop or rap compared to rock, there was another that complained about what an abomination rock n' roll was versus their beloved and wholesome swing. Before that, swing and jazz was considered the abomination.

It's all the same. No doubt, the music of today will be seen as superior to that of 2045. Same goes for fashion, TV, literature. It's just a cycle that will repeat and repeat, as long as there is a younger generation and an older generation and a gap between them.

Maybe youth is alluringly deceptive, or maybe age is breeds bitterness. In the end, I think it's just all the same. What I'm scared of is become a bitter old man that can't see this cycle. I'm not saying that I need to even like the latest hot band. I just need to recognize that it isn't my taste, and it's not therefore inferior. I don't want to get stuck in this self deluded sense of superiority, thinking that the history of anything and everything clearly peaked when I was in my 20's and 30's. What a narrow view of things. Yeah, growing older grants you a great deal of universal wisdom. But it also robs some of their sense of perspective.

I was chatting with a friend a few months ago about the nature of life and death, and I told him that the biggest reason I fear death is that I won't get to see what comes next. Our planet/species has made such incredibly strides during my lifetime (never mind even over the 100 years), that it excites me to see what we're capable of another 20, 50, 100 years down the road. I dare you to successfully explain what the Internet will become to a farmer during the great depression. Now just imagine what kind of advances there are to come that a mere designer from 2015 won't be able to comprehend.

The thing is, though, there are some people who are alive, but have shut down. People who don't get to 'see' these modern miracles, because they're too deep in their opinion that it's all going to hell anyways.

Please, please don't let me be grow old and bitter. Let me see and appreciate the world how it is for as long as I have air in my lungs.
-Cril

Just take those old records off the shelf
I'll sit and listen to 'em by myself
Today's music ain't got the same soul
I like that old time rock 'n' roll

Bob Seger - Old Time Rock n' Roll