Just finished reading Evan Thomas’ magnificent “Sea of Thunder”. A wonderful book – thanks Ben!
After reading this book, I’m left with the thought that the “greatest generation” were just that – not that they were any better people than those who came either before or after – but earned that distinction because they rose up to the challenge presented to their generation. Me, I’m just awestruck.
Although I was born in 1955, I’ve always felt I was born ten years too late. I think about my interests, the music I like, the architecture I’m drawn to, the books I like to read and stories I like to hear about, and wonder why the heck I’m still working my ass off here in Gilbert, Arizona and not lollying around early happy hours somewhere around the Gulf coast of Florida, playing golf and marking restaurants that have the best blackened grouper.
This has been a constant source of tension in my life since, I don’t know, forever. There’s a part of me that knows if I were born in, say, the late ’40s there’s a damned good chance I wouldn’t even be alive today, instead memorialized after some clean-up crew discovered me face-down in a rice paddy in South Vietnam. But outside of my professional life, there’s so much of me that thinks and is drawn to things that are older than I am. And yet, I know I’m not comfortable there, either. There’s another part of me that is damned glad I was born in 1955 and therefore came of age, so to speak, in the mid-to-late ’60s and the early ’70s.
Not sure actually what I’m writing about here. But I will say this: I think (and y’all may disagree) that the generation before mine had a lot more courage and class than mine did (and, to be sure, those after mine have). I like the technological advances and the conveniences that being born when I was have brought, but I think this country and its culture has lost something along the way.
Heck, maybe I’m wrong. Like I say, I’m babbling.
Keeping with the spirit of the moment, here’s the Chairman of the Board, doing what he did best.
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Pool temp: 70 degrees
