My Gen X Rules for Living ( Title Changed 1-6-2025)

(A quick note on this, I changed the title on this from My Gen X Manifesto in 2025; due to the fact that lately, writings with this title keep coming up in conjunction with mass shootings, etc. I had used that title in jest, but it seems like it no longer is funny...so I changed it. A sad commentary on the world in which we live, but I felt this was a necessary action- January 6.2025) It seems like more and more I've written this blog to an unseen critic, who is scanning my every word for grammatical errors, theme, content, subject agreement and emotions. I've made myself a wreck wondering if I write one thing, who will be offended, if I write another, do I sound angry, mad, trapped in the past, etc.? Then I keep trying to write this one absolutely fantastic piece that goes viral and makes people want to interview me on television and gives my moment of immortality.

I think today is the day that I will quit listening to the critics and write what I want to hear. If I talk about the past, it's because I truly miss it. It's not to say that there aren't positive things about the present, but for someone coming at life from my perspective, the truth simply and unadulterated is, I'm not at home in this present. I don't like to think that the best years are behind me, but the whole point of this blog is that I am a Gen X'er in a world I increasingly don't understand. It moves a bit too fast, it's a little too loud, far more morally bankrupt than I would prefer given my choice.

Maybe I've never really stepped out from behind the desk to let you know who I am.

My Gen X Manifesto.  By the way, I've always wanted to write my own manifesto, mostly because, I really, really like saying...manifesto, it sounds grand and lofty, doesn't it? Of course, Hitler, Lenin, Marx and Mao Tse-Tung all had manifesto's but you know, they're dead...so why quibble...

So here are my bedrock beliefs, a few truths and a bunch of crap I made up because I can...

1.  Irregardless SHOULD NOT be a word. For those of you who thought it already was and have used it in sentences, I salute you and, uh...feel your pain.

2. I believe in the idea that every individual should have the God-given right at any time to sing along with A-Ha's "Take on Me", Foreigners' "I Want to Know What Love Is", and Mister Mister's "Broken Wings" on their car stereo and hit the high notes as loudly and off-key as they possibly can.

3.  I believe as one comedian, whose name I can't recall once said, "If only Karen Carpenter and Mama Cass Elliott had shared that ham sandwich, they'd both still be alive today and the world would be a much better place!"

4. If you are depressed, sick, or just plain un-inspired, 25 minutes of watching Bob Ross paint can be life-changing. The same principle can be applied to just about anything Gordon Lightfoot sings and Bruch's Symphony No.1 in G Minor.

5. Knives should always be cleaned in between applying peanut butter and jelly. There is nothing more irksome than peanut butter in the jelly and jelly in the peanut butter. Well, actually there is, toast crumbs in the butter.

6. No-one should go through life without viewing the following at least once, "The Sound of Music", "Casablanca", "The Philadelphia Story" (the one with Cary Grant, Katherine Hepburn and Jimmy Stewart, not the Tom Hanks movie "Philadelphia" which everybody always thinks this movie is), "Bringing Up Baby", "Swing Time", "Singing in the Rain","Now Voyager", "Stella Dallas", "Star Wars Eps. 4-6", "Raiders of the Lost Ark", "The Thin Man", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", "While You Were Sleeping", "The Matrix" (but only the first one), "ET" and "Rocky 1,2,3 (skip the rest). This list is actually longer but only these few made the cut because everyone knows a manifesto isn't a doctoral dissertation and space is limited.

7. I dare you to feel un-happy while listening to Matthew Wilder's 'Break My Stride'. Ditto for Katrina and the Waves, 'Walking on Sunshine'.

8. I live by the words of a former pastor, Dr. Mark Rutland who once opined, "There is a direct correlation between your relationship with God and the way you treat the clerk at the supermarket". Practice living with a servant's heart. It's pretty good stuff.

9. I believe that life without a cat or two is pretty useless. Animals just make life better.

10. I believe that the actual day the music died was September 10, 1991 when Nirvana released "Smells like Teen Spirit".  I've carried a grudge against grunge ever since. It was so...well...unhappy-sounding.

11. I think people today are drowning in a sea of in-gratitude and narcissism the like of which has never been seen before.

12. I am completely in agreement with child prodigy, Blaise Pascal who wrote at the age of 16, "There is a God shaped vacuum in the heart of every man which cannot be filled by any created thing, but only by God, the Creator, made known through Jesus.” He went on to among other things, create the mechanical calculator, shape projective geometry, establish many of the economic principles which guide our economy as it is today, all before age 39 when he died. I'm 39. I need to get cracking...

13. I think our generation, the Gen X'ers are the last generation which will ever have had a true childhood. The last to have sporting events where there were winners and (gasp) losers and not everybody got a trophy just for showing up, where every 20 minutes of our life wasn't scheduled, the last generation to have enough common sense to not walk out in the middle of the street into the path of on-coming cars which happens every evening as I come through my neighborhood on the way home from work.

14. Like Uncle Si on Duck Dynasty, I always have to have a few things on hand, my Bible, Altoids in my purse and a bottle of water somewhere close to hand.

15. I don't deal well in small talk. I've never understood the principle of how to 'small talk', or flirting for that matter. If you perceive I'm flirting with you, it might not be the case. I'm always the last to know that I was, in fact, flirting with you...

16. I've always felt somewhat defective because I don't eat mayonnaise (loathe it) and don't drink coffee. America seems to run on these two (2) commodities and I've always felt weird because I don't like them.

17. Tattoos are a mystery to me. I don't understand why this culture is so obsessed with them. I wish I could see it differently, but to me, I'll never understand why you feel the need to permanently deface your body. To what purpose...to be trendy? Maybe if you wanted to inculcate some principle you feel you might forget, or perhaps so you won't have to worry about losing a wedding band...

18. I'd still like to teach the world to sing...in perfect Harmony. Perhaps it's an overly idealistic, if not outright ridiculous idea, but I so desire peace. I know that our beliefs will always divide us, even to the point of death, but I truly believe in the ideal, that we are all fearfully and wonderfully made and endowed by our creator with the inalienable gifts of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

19. I devoutly believe in liberty and democracy as the shared hope of the world. Not so easily attainable, but perhaps more worth the earning because of that fact.

20. Lastly, like Jack Black, I too believe, that "One good rock show, with face-melting guitar licks, can change the world."

So there is my manifesto, or at least Volume I...

Reality Bites

The other day, my Mom who counts herself as one of my blog fans, remarked to me that the tenor of my posts seems to come off lately as angry. It was a bit startling to hear this, but after I pondered it for a bit, I came to think she was well, hate myself for saying this...right.
Today, after taking a cursory look at MSN, checking the headlines, stocks, French Open scores, I found the following article, entitled, "The Great Recession Wrecked Generation X" that I am posting a link to here:

http://money.msn.com/now/post.aspx?post=fc1c9c39-1c4a-4223-9ecb-2512551ec4b2

While I know a lot of people, including many in Gen X jib at the title of  'Generation X' or say,
"Oh, I don't buy into that", or "That doesn't apply to me", in my case, I think, this article encapsulates a lot of the anger that seems to be overflowing into my writing lately. Where the author, Jason Notte talks about Gen X since the Great Recession (Depression) being just older, and more tired, but certainly not any better off financially, I was mentally high-fiving him.

Finally, someone coming out and saying it. There were plenty of meglomaniacal posts in the 'Comments' sections from those who say that they weren't affected at all, let's face it there are always exceptions to any rule, but I think many of us, when we matriculated and entered the work force expected so much better. In my case, a crushing workload, which thanks to new cost-cutting measures, I can't even get overtime for, or health benefits, or vacation. When November rolls around, I will have hit the 2 year mark of the longest probationary period in history! And before you say, well you could leave and look for something better. Something better these days usually means another assignment and I already have one of those, a permanent job today is like trying to hit the motherlode in the Yukon!  Because let's face it, the Boomers aren't retiring because they can't afford to, the Millenials want your job too and they are younger, cuter and more wired in, so where does that leave me?  Really tired mostly, but in the more dire moments, staring into a gaping abyss of hopelessness. Believe it or not I used to be such an idealist; I go back and read the journal entries around the time of my high school graduation and my early days of college and there is such an optimistic, hopeful tone, I'm so excited by the possibilities of life, the feeling that everything is just out there waiting to be conquered. Truthfully, I almost can't read them anymore, knowing what I know now.

The thing is, I haven't given up...I care. I've tried to enact change politically, tried to believe that my congressman really does read the emails I send, that the Florida Governor, who I've ardently supported because he promised to bring employment to our state, will keep his promises. I vote even in the smallest elections, I write, I work hard, I pray.

They call us the slacker generation, but I know many of us are doing the same, working hard, voting, praying, hoping beyond hope, beyond what the experts tell us, beyond what the politicians don't do, beyond the promises they don't keep, that somehow we will beat the odds....