Monday, November 29, 2010

Spoiled Brat

I thought about naming this post Spoiled Brats, but the only reason I would have done that was in a desperate attempt to deflect some of the blame to the larger community of those reading/working/being anything close to remotely human. But for the most part, these are just my thoughts and I'm not in any position to drag anyone else down with me so here's my dose of reality potion.

It's so strange, for the past few weeks I've been asking myself, "What if you had lived in another time?" Greed and selfish ambition were always there, I'm not about to convince myself otherwise, but let's say I had grown up under different circumstances-- the kind of circumstances that we've seen throughout history; microcosms that the historians love to cite, referencing a time that was purer and full of the morality that's lacking today.

We've all read/seen/heard of Tom Brokaw's 'The Greatest Generation'. An entire 300 page obituary of the American golden age, full of countless examples of those that endured, courage under fire and all that good stuff. Forgive my sarcasm, it seeps through uncontrollably.

But what if corporate success, a home in the suburbs and a $60,000 car were luxuries that only served to get me slapped. What if the only formal education I was allotted was working a steam press or tightening gears in an assembly line. All of this until I was ripe and ready for absolutely nothing except for more of the same. And to think this was adolescence for the longest time for so many, if you could even call it that.

It's ironic how I catch myself calling work a 'grind' without once stopping to think how that association stuck.

Spoiled brat. I call myself that because there are and have been people with far less to hope for with much harder jobs paired with nothing to look forward to other than more of the same that still took joy in their work; people that were only surprised by how old they were because they looked in the mirror and looked at least 10 years older than they actually were. Surprised because they felt so much older and not younger than the years told them they were.

People keep saying that it's all relative, which is fine, but regardless, it doesn't make it any easier to swallow the fact that I'm being put to shame.


3 comments:

John Park said...

You should write more. I enjoy it.

Noona said...

i love Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation. Daniel Inouye-- he is in classic "Sam words," THA MAN. I know the book comes off super cheesy, but i LOVE IT. Also, Julia Child. That chapter rocked too.

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