Have you ever felt that our generation ‘lacks’ something, some sort of unity/uniformity?
I honestly believe that our generation is benefiting from the lack of uniformity, but in the same vein the terms “unity” and “uniformity” should not be statements that could be replaced with one another. If there’s anything that our generation lacks it’s all the things that have held generations back prior. While our generation is soaked in the pure wetness of the media influence, it has not been an all together bad thing. While obesity and issues of social interaction do prove to be legitimate concerns, we are born from a generation that first challenged social constructs and we now are truly bringing down the metaphorical hammer. While I cannot speak for my entire generation, I can say among all those for whom I have had genuine experiences, as a whole we’re definitely a lot more leftist in our actions and our beliefs. I truly believe that we represent a generation that believes that social hierarchies need to be disbanded, the humanities need to be strengthened and that all people truly deserve equal treatment. We were put through school learning of Martin Luther King, Jr. and we’ve been unfortunate enough to witness the political downfalls from people who have held fast to outlandish right wing ideals to a point where it looks all together foolish and destroys the very country for which we live. (That is, if clarification is needed, America.) If we are as a culture and a generation united on anything, it is our ability to see through the immutable haze and reject uniformity.
What would I see if I were on a planet 10 lightyears away and looked at you through my telescope?
With the way things have been going and what are probably our government’s needs to hide new advancements from the public eye, I’d say that there probably wouldn’t be a genuine change in the way things are headed now. As mentioned prior, it is my hope that at this point the 20-somethings that make up my generation have taken up more control and the hole that is our o-zone layer has not increased in size and scope. I could ramble on for pages about my hope that there are no longer American troops in occupation in a country that is fighting a war based on a lie, but I believe that is understood.
Do you believe every single thing we do, no matter how small, will have its effect on eternity?
Eternity is the continuation of time; therefore it’s a bit asinine to assume that everything that has been done thus far and that everything that will be done won’t have at least some effect on the outcomes of future generations. Nonetheless, to assume that the concept of “eternity” has an ability to be manipulated is also a bit ridiculous. Eternity is a unit to measure time, albeit a reaching one, and time is not something that can be manipulated in its most literal sense. I’m stretching that a bit, but the idea has been cast nonetheless. Case in point, let’s assumes that everyday at nine you eat an oat bran muffin. Clearly being regular is of great importance to you. Now, due to some unforeseen stomach problems, an oat bran muffin is out of the question at nine. This complete lack of “muffin-ry” will not change what 5 o’clock is -it will still be 5 o’clock regardless of whether or not you’ve eaten this muffin. Nonetheless, if something important happened at 5 o’clock as a consequence of this oat bran muffin (whatever the gory details be, I’m going to leave that up to your imagination) then at 5 o’clock you’re concept of time may be altered, but the general concept of 5 o’clock would remain the same. As it is, that does not mean that everything we do does not leave our footprint. Everything that has occurred and will occur will have an impact; nothing we do is futile although it may feel that way. Do not ever stop believing that your actions are not impactful.
Did you ever drown in summer or in one of the other 4 seasons?
It’s my assumption that this is a figurative statement, not a literal one. (To cover my bases, no I’ve never drowned literally, as a New Englander drowning in the winter would be a pretty awful experience.) Figuratively, I’d say that last summer did swallow me whole. Saying this, I was drenched in being in love and feeling everything that it was in my toes, I was genuinely happy and while I was not all-together free from responsibility, my life did seem to float around me -much like I assume it would if I was actually drowning (minus the whole flailing and gulping air aspect of it all). Nonetheless, I did not come up (or down) from my happiness cloud for much reality-air for the summer months. In fall is when I truly hit the bottom of the lake and reality crashed in around me. It is my silent hope that this next fall has more weightless experiences, but only time will tell.
(If you believe in free will…) Aside from a blessing, is freedom also a burden?
I’ve seen many a bumper sticker that forces the statement that “Freedom isn’t free” with an American flag. It’s safe to say that these stickers are talking about the war, but the statement is still true. Freedom has been built upon countless generations working hard to improve conditions and strive for equality but at the same time freedom, or the lack thereof, has come at the cost of something else. Freedom from financial burden is a consequence of money, money a consequence of society, society a consequence of humanity, humans a consequence evolution. I do not believe in anything other than free-will, so my judgments may seem slightly biased, although that is not the intention. We are free to make whatever decisions we would like to, while there are laws and social constructs that inhibit us from following through on many of our decisions without consequence sometimes, the decision still has the ability to be made. That being said, we must face the consequences of whatever decision we chose to make and that may be a burden in and of itself, but the fact of the matter is it is always a “blessing” to do the things that you want to, or at least have the ability to. Nothing is controlling us, there is no puppet master pulling the strings, and acceptance of this fact truely makes people reject the assumption that we can blame the consequences of our actions on anyone other than ourself. People need to start owning what they chose to do.
There's a love coming to us all. 