I was navigating some narrow buoys, bringing my little aluminum boat back to the dock, when I reached for my beer to take one last sip before it was all hands on deck with ropes and such, and as I set it back in the crack of the boat that I had it leaning up against, with the silver-blue aluminum behind it, and the smell of the old motor exhaust, and the sound of it chugging along, and the sound of the birds, and the lapping water- something twitched on me, like beyond time and space.
How many men have taken one last sip of beer, set it in the crevasse of an aluminum boat, and looked towards the dock? It felt like I accidentally performed a ritual that put me in synch with someone, somewhere, who executed the exact same maneuver- maybe in the same place- 50 years ago, or so. The teenage boomer 1970s hay-day of Summer Breeze by Seals and Croft. It was like space-time bent around me, and the world revealed itself.
There is just something about the years before I was born, the years of my parents, that I was always obsessed with. Maybe because in the 80s and 90s that generation was essentially the center of the galaxy, and all world events and culture was in its orbit. So pondering the goings on, when these people were my own age more or less, was always a hobby of mine.
They are a fascinating species, the Boomers. Maybe the first real generation of coddled narcissists this country has seen, but that is a harsh generalization. Plenty had it better or worse than each other, and others across time and space. But net aggregate, the first heavily self absorbed, pleasure-seeking, intellectually arrogant generation to hit the scene. And the fact that they are now our “wise elders” with which to look to, inclines me to believe that may have something to do with the fact that the heart of western society is rotting from within.
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