So grateful to die now instead of later

I’m suffering from multiple generation gaps, what you cannot get in Kentucky, and a few thoughts about unsurprising surprises, on sale this week only…

1. Am I the only one who can’t remember which generation is which, or why I should care about it at all? Every day, maybe every hour or two, I’m seeing some new report on the opinions and habits of Gen X versus Gen Y versus Millennials versus Zebras and it feels more and more like a new form of horoscope. It’s worse than a horoscope, really, because the experts disagree on exactly which years define which groups, some of the start/end years overlap and there doesn’t seem to be a unifying theory about why one generation gave way to the next. Yes, Millennials like email and Gen Xers love text, but that’s the best you’ve got?
   
   
2. The cruelest sentence I hear these days is, “They would have died from something anyway.” Mostly, I’ll be talking with someone about pandemic deaths among older people and my conversation partner will dismiss the loss of life by noting that the victims were old and they would die somehow, and soon, so why not from Covid? Well, yes, all of us die of something, so the comment is true, but that doesn’t mean they would have died now, that they had no dreams or plans, that they were fine with dying because, hell, who wants another five or ten years? Maybe I’m wrong, though. Maybe this thought truly is consoling to people. Perhaps I should give it a shot and, next time I’m at a funeral, just mention to the family that their loved one was going to die of anyway, so this was as good a time as any.
   
   
3. I know a bunch of people who hate Illinois, hate Chicago, think the future here is a dystopian hellscape of killer taxes, killer wokeness and, well, killers. They haven’t moved, though, and they aren’t likely to do so, for two major reasons. First, if they move to one of the many Edenic locales they pine for, they’ll discover there’s something they don’t like there, either. Second, this is a great place to live. Yes, the taxes are high and the crime rate is unsettling, but the restaurants are first-rate, the tap water is clean, the entertainment venues are top-notch and we can fly non-stop almost anywhere in the world from our local airport. Also, you can’t get a good hot dog in Kentucky.
   
   
4. I’m continually surprised at our ability to be surprised by things that are seriously unsurprising. The pandemic brought shutdowns and shortages that led to huge inflation in some areas and huge deflation in others, disruptions to the supply chain and repurposing of factories to meet new demand patterns. Our recovery brought different shutdowns and shortages that led to huge inflation in some areas and huge deflation in others, disruptions to the supply chain and repurposing of factories to meet new demand patterns. OMG, gasoline is cheap when nobody is driving and expensive when people hit the road! Maybe it’s true that we were all born yesterday. 
   
   
5. At some point, we’ve accommodated someone for so long that we’re just in too deep and there is no reasonable way to get out of the situation. Whether it’s a friend or a relative or a co-worker who always seems to need just a bit of help, we take a single step on the slippery slope and enlist in a lifetime of service. Pretty much every one of us is caught in one or more of these vicious circles, either as the perpetrator or the one who gets perpetrated. (Yeah, bad grammar, but you get the point.) It never seems like a big deal, the first time, but then it’s a permanent part of your life. Pay the bills, walk the dog, look something up online for Agnes-who-could-learn-how-to-use-the-internet-but-won’t. Sort the laundry, do the dishes, send a few bucks to Fred-who-needs-an-advance-just-this-once. My friend asked me, “What’s the kindest way to do nothing?” and I really don’t have an answer for that one.
   
   
6. With workers in short supply for the first time in forever, this is a great time to be entering the workforce. All kinds of career opportunities are opening up as Baby Boomers race for the exits and former corporate minions open their own consulting businesses from their basements. We were headed for a labor shortage at the end of 2019, but the pandemic added a huge catalyst to the trend. If there’s any group that’s going to benefit ginormously from this whole thing, it’s people leaving school over the next few years.
   
   
7. Speaking of which, if there’s one job we really need to fill, it’s fixer. No, not the guy who makes sure the long-shot wins the race, but the person who cleans up the mess that’s left by all the web developers, app developers, marketers, lawyers…pretty much everyone. We’ve all run across website glitches, corrupted links, confusing phrases, and all kinds of other mistakes with the businesses we visit, but there’s no way to get them fixed. That’s because nobody has a career stake in correcting someone else’s mistake. Nobody’s getting promoted for spending the day changing affect to effect or redirecting the link that continually brings us back to the same page. This should be a career with huge job security, but don’t count on it.
   
   
8. There’s a sign by the river that says we’re in Potawatomi Land, and I guess that’s true. But you could also say this is Beavertown or Pteradactylvania, because they were here first, as well. In the suburbs, the naturalists are continually fighting to get rid of the buckthorn that Europeans brought over and restore the Prairie to the condition it was in on the exact day that settlers arrived. Even when we think we’re taking the long view about history, we tend to measure it in “me” time.
   

 
Over at Dad Writes, we’re always looking for new careers to avoid and big new surprises that are actually surprising. Find out which is which by clicking here to subscribe.
 
 
 
 
 
 

---