We May Be Screwed, but I'm Still Thankful

There's a Chinese saying I'm particularly taken with - it's "may you live in interesting times." In culture that generally prizes stability over all else, it's meant to be a curse. But in our rock and roll, roller coaster-loving country, "May you live in interesting times" seems sexy and dangerous. This year certainly has been both. I'm thankful I've gotten a front row seat.

I remember when I was a kid my parents would regale me with stories of the '60s: "We were alive during segregation! Your grandfather threw his WWII medals at me when I told him I wasn't going to Vietnam! We led marches! You would have loved our flower-child wedding! I permanently lost my some of my hearing at a Rolling Stones Concert!" I always felt a little forlorn that I'd missed the boat on clearly the most exciting generation to ever be a part of. I thought my cohorts would never be such passionate activists, we would never have so much at stake, and it would never be as fun.

I don't think that anymore.

I think I've actually come of age in one of the most fascinating times in American history. My adult political consciousness thus far is bookended by debating the Bush v. Gore Florida fiasco in Math class when I was 17 and the election of Barack Hussein Obama when I was 25, and many, many interesting chapters in between. The last year especially has felt like history on meth: it's been so fast and furious -- I feel like I've had these moments of looking up from my computer and saying to myself things like, "Wait, did free market capitalism just end?"

We don't know how this all turns out -- we can pray that there's a happy ending to this period of history. Obama's election may signal that the tide is turning, but it seems like we're staring into some pretty black holes. A rosy patch for me is that the image of the disengaged disaffected, cynical, non-voting young person has been proven wrong. Throngs of young people propelled him to victory in Iowa, and he won the youth vote by 35 points over John McCain. It feels like an incredibly gratifying generational moment.

Despite the troubles we're in and may be ahead, at least I'll have plenty to tell my children: "I protested the invasion of Iraq in 2003! "I was alive when it was legal to discriminate against gay people! Everybody wondered if America was too racist to elect Obama! I lived in New York when Wall Street seemed perpetually on the brink of collapse!

Maybe I'm a little crazy by seeming to be excited that we could all going to hell in a handbasket, but somehow I'm still thankful for all these interesting times.

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Comments

[billbb]

We may still be going to Hell in a hand basket, but at least now it's our basket.

Leave it to the Republicans to lie again, and their ownership society to mean that the government would own banks, insurance companies, and, before we're done, maybe car companies.

Who knew the Republicans would lead us to socialism?

[Mildmannered]

you also lived through eight of the darkest years in U.S. history -- the Bush years -- when everything went wrong and everything looked hopeless

[local21]

not everything went wrong during the Bush years:

http://obama.senate.gov/speech/051027-statement_of_se_4/

[billbb]

True, so far as that goes. But having the White Sox do well was like finding a diamond in a septic tank; it is a nice bright spot, but it hardly makes up for all the crap that has happened.

[mamacat]

Very amusing (in a good way) article. May I just point out that what makes this or any other era interesting is that it is filled with suffering and challenges associated with ameliorating that suffering.
I would gladly give up all of my interesting experiences from the 60s and 70s in order to bring back a few friends who didn't survive those times.
The stories that my parents told me about the flu epidemic of 1917-1918, the Great Depression, and World War II are very interesting, but I wish my Dad had not had to come out of WW II with a bad case of post traumatic stress. His medals didn't come close to making up for what he suffered, but at least he had the satisfaction of knowing that his war wasn't a fool's errand.
I don't pretend to understand everything that happens, but I do sympathise with people who have to suffer, whether through these or other "interesting" times.

[brooklyncitizen]

Excellent point.

As "cute" as this post is it is written by someone outside looking in at these interesting times...to­o many people are busy trying to survive and that's never "interesting": loosing jobs and livelihoods and 401K pensions and loved ones deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan is excruciating and real ...not interesting.

Too many of us are marginalized and yes we voted for Obama but times are tough just the same.
Feeling it in Brooklyn for sure.

[MaryT63]

I came of age during the '60s. I went to segrated schools in the south. I lived thru jim crow laws. John, Martin, Bobby, Malcolm were struck down because they did not play by the unwritten rules. Early one morning in October I was watching Obama speak at one of his rallies on a c-span re-air. I choked up and cried. I prayed that God, please keep him safe. After those tears I felt okay. Today I feel Obama will be safe for one reason - somebody has to clean up this mess the powers to be have created. There is nothing left to steal from the US treasurer.
Thanks, to Katherine and her generation for helping to bring Obama over the finish line.
I might add about the 1960s. It was a great time to be between 18 thru 29 years of age. It was fun times, the music, the non-fashion, the jobs, low crime, college life. Jobs were plentiful. You could walk in off the street and take the civil service exams to work for city, county, state, federal agencies. Help wanted ads were placed in windows up and down the streets. Corporations had a social contract with the american people and felt their pain. Corporations had compassion for its workers. All that went away with the conservative movement. Obama created a movement. Young folks hold him accountable.

[mamacat]

I too remember segregation, but I try not to. Words fail me. What an awful time.

[breezyholler]

I too was in those protest marches in the 1960s....n­ow at age 65 , I feel as if today we are finally seeing the fruit of those 60 @ 70s movements.­....forty years after !!! Later is certainly better than never and I am thankful to have lived to see my dreams come true...

peace@wellness to all ...

[DeniseD]

I always wonder what happened between the generation of the 60s and this generation. I am too young to remember much about the Vietnam War, but I often wonder why haven't we seen protest wars about Iraq like we did about Vietnam? I know there have been a few protests, but nothing compared to the Vietnam War. Would anyone like to post an opinion on this?

[TomTheAlmostUgly]

Speaking for myself, it was because it was clear that George wouldn't have listened. GWB made it a policy to meet with only people who agreed with him, and Cheney was quoted as saying, "The American people get to make their voices heard every four years [and we ignore them the rest of the time]."

Even worse than not listening to the protesters, Bushie might have ordered Army troops to shoot them, and he would have been genuinely surprised at the world reaction.

[BoulderSue]

I feel fortunate to have lived through the "flower child" period, Civil Rights battle and marchin against the Vietnam war. I came of age in the sixties and lived to see some of the "unrealistic idealism" we had then come into fruition, at least part of the way. We still have a ways to go and the sixties taught me not to stop "til you get there. It really IS possibel for change to come about!

[lizziekw]

"History on meth" indeed. But it really is interesting. It's nice to be positively tuned in to politics again, instead of just shrieking about the insane lunatics running the government and their partners in crime.

For me, the sense of relief is a lot like the days when President Clinton was coming into office after 12 years of Reagan/Bush. It's nice to have a president again.

[oregonideas]

an oft-heard cliche' says "things have to get worse before they get better" we've had eight very busy years of everything imaginable getting worse. It's going to take at least that many years for things to "get better"...­...we've got so, so much to do to just get back to "ground zero", that point where the US and the world was "BW" (before W.). The first question is simple, "Good god, just where do we even start?" The economy? healthcare? education? international relations? infrastructure repair? energy policy and development? tax reform? dealing with our national debt? unemployment and an epidemic of "new poverty"? social security and elder care issues? .....how long a list could we all create?

President-elect Obama is a very bright guy who is surrounding himself with very capable people....­and it's a good thing... We're in a mess comparable to, or even worse than, the "'Great" depression and it's going to take actions at least as extreme as the New Deal to deal with that mess We ALL need do prepare ourselves to be part of that fix.......­it won't be quick, and it won't be easy.

[joycehelene]

I meant to say we are all NOW freed from the Bush/Cheney administration, the rest is up to us..

[joycehelene]

The best of times are yet to come, especially if we all pitch in and do our part and help our country and our new president, we are not freed from the Bush/Cheney administration and will have a new start and it will be up to us to make things work.

[MossyOak]

These are indeed exciting times, but only because Obama was elected. If it had gone the other way, these would be abysmal times.

[HoraceOvidson]

There have been a lot of "interesting" times, and moments at the edge of the abyss-- in American history alone-- the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, the Great Depression, World War II, the Cuban Missile Crisis to name a few. Turbulence, fear of the unknown, fear of the known, sometimes death and destruction visited these times. And that is mostly from an caucasian perspective. Just think if you were a Native American, or African American.

[mythster]

Sinologists seem to be in agreement on the idea that "May you live in interesting times" is not a curse but instead a friendly wish that you don't suffer from boredom throughout your life.

These are "interesting" and "difficult" times but we will survive and perhaps have a stronger, more compassionate and less greedy nation than the one shaped by "Big Bill Clinton and the Baby Boomers" (how's that for a name for a hot Rock Band?)

A note for Katherine G. and her contemporaries (including my baby daughter who was born 28 years ago, when I was 46) You guys have the torch and it is a huge responsibility- DON"T EVER GIVE UP!
Don't slide (like your baby boomer grandparents) from wide-eyed, "We can change the world" idealists into cynical fat cat capitalists and free-marketeers who told the world that "Greed is good"!

[hortonhearsawho]

Neither one of us witnessed the Declaration of Independence, but, we will the Inuaguration of America.

[grumpygranny66]

Amen!!!!

[rockyb26]

great post. i feel the same way. as a black female i've always felt that my life experience could never trump that of my parents who attended segregated schools and drank from colored water fountains. but this year I felt a sense of redemption b/c i was able to take part in the campaign and election of our country's first black president. it surely doesn't erase all of the hardships they had to endure, but i felt that i was witnessing a tide change that could rival brown v. board, the march on washington, and the voting rights act. i look forward to sharing this story with my children and only hope that they will also witness startling change as I and my parents have before them.