I Feel Blessed for When I was Born

[LotusEater]

Well, at least you can still use a paper map and compass if you choose!

I imagine that a lot of kids used only to Google or Apple Maps have a hard time knowing which way is up- I.e. What is N, S, E or W!

My son just started driving and he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way home from two streets over without the map on his phone.

 

[jpmcwjr]

And there are others who can't read the map on their phone, and rely solely on spoken instructions.

 

[STP]

My son just started driving and he probably wouldn’t be able to find his way home from two streets over without the map on his phone.

They’re certainly dependent on that appendage ?

 

[Jaylotw]

I've always felt that I was born in the wrong generation. I enjoy a slow pace of life which is at odds with today's moving world.

I'm grateful for our advances as society (while worried about certain regressions) and am happy to live in a time where whatever odd rabbit hole of meaningless trivia I choose to fall down can be explored endlessly on a touch screen, where any task can be learned on YouTube, where I can post on a pipe smoking forum with you crabby old farts.

And. I can look up all the great music that has been recorded over the last 100 years at the touch of a button. While great music was popular in the 70s (and I love it), today's great music requires uncovering, it has to be sought out and discovered. It's still out there.

Still, I've spent enough time alone in the deep woods to wish that people would learn to step back and appreciate slowness and peace, the wonders of nature, something I feel we as a species and society had many years ago. I wish we would have kept that.

 

[anotherbob]

Title edited. See rule 9. -jpm

I know every generation believes that what they had growing up was "the best ever." I believe that I was blessed to have been born when I was to experience so many exceptional things. I have lived during the years of Classic Rock of the 60's and 70's. Music was so good during this era that probably the most listened to stations in the country today are still classic rock stations. Country music sounded like country- not rock music with a country twang. I lived before Performance Advancing Drugs infiltrated baseball. Baseball, while still slow at times, was definitely America's past time. Skilled athletes played during the 60's, 70's and 80's. Kids played it whenever possible in their sandlot parks. Football in the 60's and 70's were played in the mud,biter cold and elements that became an essential aspect of the game. The players played for the love of the game. I remember football greats like Johnny Unitas having to have off season jobs to make a decent living. Those were the days before multi-million dollar contracts that made athletes feel as if they didn't have to be role models for the nation's youth. Forgive me for thinking back on the years, but I don't think it is ever bad to feel blessed or to feel that life didn't owed me something. There are many positive things for every generation, but if you grew up in the 60's and 70's, I believe we were " truly blessed" and had the best in so many different categories. A lot of the forum members are in my age category. I hope you feel blessed also. Please respond and give me your thoughts. Of course, you don't have to agree with me, that's what makes this forum great.

Music well today I met kids through music all the time that have taste that spans decades. They don't think they're that weird, it's just how people who like music get their music now. With out the boundaries must of us had to deal with.
I can agree about the sports thing totally. I have to admit that even working as a janitor at a college sometimes cleaning the football building I can't consider it a sport as much as an industry, not to knock the kids they work their asses off and need talent to even get there and suck (if they do, the worst kid there is impressive). But there is so much that goes into making the team and it goes back to money so much of the time. That I can't see it as a competition between athletes. I look at the less popular sports and see sports. The Lacrosse team is going to do better or worse almost completely on the work of the coaches and the players. Not because they can afford to be up on the latest science and recruiting and etc..... I imagine the pro level makes what I've seen look sandlot.
I think that being blessed says a lot. More so then what a person has in stuff or even experience and simulation. I think a big thing is if life feels rewarding or if it feels like a senseless slog. I think one of the biggest things people are missing these days is the sense and maybe the reality of effort and work being genuinely rewarded. Even looking at jobs I've had. My last job I know I was doing something and effecting peoples lives, but I almost never felt that. The work and the result where so distant and detached from each other. My favorite description of the job was Sisyphean. Now I can look at the room I was just in and say it's clean and ready for people to use it. And I think it's harder to find a job like that these days (not impossible, but harder).
All in all I think every time has its goods it's bads and even those depend on you and how you're composed (for example some people just don't care about music). But no matter what it's probably a lot better to feel like you're lucky for when you where born then to feel like you landed in the wrong time.

 

[anotherbob]

oh yeah I wanted to add something too. If you go back through the historical record. You see this over and over again. Man we were born in the right time everything was better. And (thankfully the op didn't do this, but I am sure it came up) those youngsters sure do suck and are super lame. You know the youngsters that inherited everything from us and also had to adapt to the state we've left the world in. But ultimately I think it's because young people kind of suck in some ways, they're kind of idiots. And they've always kind of been too. Which gets compounded by when old people are idiots we blame them personally, when they're young we blame their generation more often. I always think about how when I see people I went to high school with the ones that bitch about how terrible young people are these days and how we weren't like that, always seem to be the ones that where in fact like that or worse.

 

[JOHN72]

Title edited. See rule 9. -jpm

I know every generation believes that what they had growing up was "the best ever." I believe that I was blessed to have been born when I was to experience so many exceptional things. I have lived during the years of Classic Rock of the 60's and 70's. Music was so good during this era that probably the most listened to stations in the country today are still classic rock stations. Country music sounded like country- not rock music with a country twang. I lived before Performance Advancing Drugs infiltrated baseball. Baseball, while still slow at times, was definitely America's past time. Skilled athletes played during the 60's, 70's and 80's. Kids played it whenever possible in their sandlot parks. Football in the 60's and 70's were played in the mud,biter cold and elements that became an essential aspect of the game. The players played for the love of the game. I remember football greats like Johnny Unitas having to have off season jobs to make a decent living. Those were the days before multi-million dollar contracts that made athletes feel as if they didn't have to be role models for the nation's youth. Forgive me for thinking back on the years, but I don't think it is ever bad to feel blessed or to feel that life didn't owed me something. There are many positive things for every generation, but if you grew up in the 60's and 70's, I believe we were " truly blessed" and had the best in so many different categories. A lot of the forum members are in my age category. I hope you feel blessed also. Please respond and give me your thoughts. Of course, you don't have to agree with me, that's what makes this forum great.

I am glad to read this. I was born in '72. But I love the '60s and '70s. Tobacco stores were overflowing with delicious blends. Smoking was well recognized.I agree with you. Although I was only lucky enough to live my childhood between the 70's and 80's. Beautiful commentary my friend. It made me happy with your thoughts and nostalgia.

 

[Simmerdown☕️]

Back when women couldn’t vote and segregation was still in effect. The good ol days for you?

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I really like air conditioning, sports… phhht, I have no motivation to watch men do athletic things, and I’m grateful as Hell that I can find women’s beach vollyball on somewhere to watch.
I’m glad as hell that I don’t have to stand in soup lines, and can go to any city and find a good grocery store.
I’m totally ok with respecting people rights who are different from me… Hell, I wouldn’t want to live somewhere where people are all homogeneous.
Cars, styles, clothes… phhht… I don’t pay attention to that stuff anyways.
Music, some of the best stiff is being made right now…. Old people just don’t know how to find it.
Hell, just a tad over 100 years ago, if you wanted music, you had to make it yourself. 50 years ago we were limited to what a handful of record company execs wanted us to hear. Now, anyone can make it. Sure, there’s lots of crap, but that’s the side effect of so many people recording. SO MANY MORE musicians than ever before.

I see the good in right now. The bad… sure… if you are relying on the News to tell you what’s going on, instead of just looking around, sure, you’re going to focus on the bad. The BAD sells news. Screw ‘em. I’m not buying into any of their worldviews.

I’m perfectly happy in when I am alive.

 

[Jaylotw]

Music well today I met kids through music all the time that have taste that spans decades. They don't think they're that weird, it's just how people who like music get their music now. With out the boundaries must of us had to deal with....

I think that being blessed says a lot. More so then what a person has in stuff or even experience and simulation. I think a big thing is if life feels rewarding or if it feels like a senseless slog. I think one of the biggest things people are missing these days is the sense and maybe the reality of effort and work being genuinely rewarded. Even looking at jobs I've had. My last job I know I was doing something and effecting peoples lives, but I almost never felt that. The work and the result where so distant and detached from each other. My favorite description of the job was Sisyphean. Now I can look at the room I was just in and say it's clean and ready for people to use it. And I think it's harder to find a job like that these days (not impossible, but harder).
All in all I think every time has its goods it's bads and even those depend on you and how you're composed (for example some people just don't care about music). But no matter what it's probably a lot better to feel like you're lucky for when you where born then to feel like you landed in the wrong time.

It's very true that kids (I think at 34, I can call myself "not a kid anymore," but...) today have a much wider taste of music than in the past, since so much more is easily accessible. I'm old enough to remember going to the record store and special ordering albums that I couldn't preview, couldn't stream...but also young enough to jump for joy when I could. The music industry is vastly different than it once was, much more diluted and broad. There was a whole lot of shit music in the 60s and 70s, but also record companies regulating which artists could continue recording based on what people wanted to hear on the radio so the shit music was forgotten and disappeared while Led Zeppelin and the Stones records are still in print. Today, anybody can be a recording artist with a phone and a mic, so the record companies today are stuck with the McDonalds of music, the stuff with the broadest appeal and not necessarily the most artistic or groundbreaking.

And you're dead on with the work/result detachment. We had a similar conversation in the Organic thread about this. I once had a very wealthy customer tell me that his company "dealt in concepts and ideas." I asked what kind of concepts? He said "well, finance and design..." and trailed off, he couldn't or wouldn't explain further. He's a millionaire.

So many jobs today are abstract and don't have a tangible result except profit, and I feel like this leads to a life of detachment for many, but especially people my age who are just coming into adult life. We work for money so we can enjoy life, but our lives are now swarmed with technology that only serves to detach us further from reality. Social media, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, the whole endless list. It's why so many my age (and the generations younger than me) are suffering depression and anxiety. We're detached from life in ways the previous generations can't quite fathom, even if they understand.

It's difficult to lead a simple life, and appreciate the simple joys of life in today's world, and that mindset is not encouraged by society at large.

Ugh. Sorry for the rant.

 

[JOHN72]

Also. Cow's milk tasted better and the milkman was a nice guy. and the butter sandwiches tasted like glory. Men and women had more hair all over their bodies. Yes, I keep the positive, of course......damn it.....I am serious, I never joke

 

[Jaylotw]

Also. Cow's milk tasted better and the milkman was a nice guy. and the butter sandwiches tasted like glory. Men and women had more hair all over their bodies. Yes, I keep the positive, of course......damn it.....I am serious, I never joke

You eat butter sandwiches?

 

[anotherbob]

It's very true that kids (I think at 34, I can call myself "not a kid anymore," but...) today have a much wider taste of music than in the past, since so much more is easily accessible. I'm old enough to remember going to the record store and special ordering albums that I couldn't preview, couldn't stream...

The thing the internet freaked me out the most with music was finding out about albums some great some not so great that where released by bands I am deeply into. Albums I never knew about. All be cause of the internets.

but also young enough to jump for joy when I could. The music industry is vastly different than it once was, much more diluted and broad. There was a whole lot of shit music in the 60s and 70s, but also record companies regulating which artists could continue recording based on what people wanted to hear on the radio so the shit music was forgotten and disappeared while Led Zeppelin and the Stones records are still in print.

So true. I see it the most with the 80's because I remember being there at the time. I meet kids that are like there was so little crap music then. And going no just the good stuff sticks the crap washes away.

Today, anybody can be a recording artist with a phone and a mic, so the record companies today are stuck with the McDonalds of music, the stuff with the broadest appeal and not necessarily the most artistic or groundbreaking.

Yes!

And you're dead on with the work/result detachment. We had a similar conversation in the Organic thread about this. I once had a very wealthy customer tell me that his company "dealt in concepts and ideas." I asked what kind of concepts? He said "well, finance and design..." and trailed off, he couldn't or wouldn't explain further. He's a millionaire.

So many jobs today are abstract and don't have a tangible result except profit, and I feel like this leads to a life of detachment for many, but especially people my age who are just coming into adult life. We work for money so we can enjoy life, but our lives are now swarmed with technology that only serves to detach us further from reality. Social media, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, the whole endless list. It's why so many my age (and the generations younger than me) are suffering depression and anxiety. We're detached from life in ways the previous generations can't quite fathom, even if they understand.

These are all good things but they have to be used right. I think once the wow factors has worn off they'll settle to where they are most useful.

It's difficult to lead a simple life, and appreciate the simple joys of life in today's world, and that mindset is not encouraged by society at large.

Ugh. Sorry for the rant.

Which is why you see more people dedicating time, money, and effort to doing just that thing. Because they need to. Heck they teach kids how to stop and smell the roses in Kindergarten now.

 

[PeterPipersPizza]

So many jobs today are abstract and don't have a tangible result except profit, and I feel like this leads to a life of detachment for many, but especially people my age who are just coming into adult life. We work for money so we can enjoy life, but our lives are now swarmed with technology that only serves to detach us further from reality. Social media, Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, the whole endless list. It's why so many my age (and the generations younger than me) are suffering depression and anxiety. We're detached from life in ways the previous generations can't quite fathom, even if they understand.

It's difficult to lead a simple life, and appreciate the simple joys of life in today's world, and that mindset is not encouraged by society at large.

I feel the same way as you. Born in the mid 80s, I feel "blessed" to have lived through the rise of the internet in the 90s but also "cursed" in that I have seen the results of our technological revolution on the West and can remember the time before it. I guess you have to take the good with the bad. But the dissolution of traditional family structures and morals is not a good sign. I feel like this started to occur in the 1960s but accelerated with the rise of the internet and social media.

But In the face of this ever increasingly insane world, I have devoted myself to preserving what good I have found: pipes, pizza, and philosophy. (But not necessarily in that order).

 

[smudgersmissingleg]

I grew up in the 1980's and used to go out in the morning and disappear until I got home at 10pm. My parents had no idea what I was up to or where I was. These days the kiddy winks all have cell phones so their parents can call them at any time to see what they're doing, I would've hated that.

Another blessing was we didn't have social media.

 

[mso489]

I didn't encounter the digital world much until I was in my forties, and unfortunately, I had genuinely bad introductions, first in the work place and then at home. The details are too laborious to relate. One example, the company that made my first home PC was sued by multiple states attorney generals and they were forced to give a rebate on services not provided, and I lived through a long term of their miscreant behavior. A friend from church who worked for IBM sorted it all out in about 30 minutes and had me "online" after months of my talking to the corporate grifters. I'm afraid I don't think like the designers or programers who made this revolution, so I never enjoyed the game of getting the devices to do my bidding, though many folks older than me did. All that said, I spend so much time online, doing such as I am able, that my wife got me an ergonomic office chair for the purpose. So, life is funny.

 

[brian64]

Clearly, we are on the downside. It was fun.

Couldn't be summed up more perfectly in so few words.

 

[JOHN72]

You eat butter sandwiches?

For God's sake, it is the energy food of the arctic expeditions. It is better and cheaper than the protein bars that children eat in gyms................

 

[Jaylotw]

Clearly, we are on the downside. It was fun.

Are we, though? I feel like every generation has said this, like at some point you get old enough to shake your cane at the kids these days and lament times gone by and swear the world is going to end. Im guilty of feeling this way,, for sure

It's a constant evolution, as our standards and paradigms are supplanted by the damn kids and their Super Nintendos.

Maybe as we age, we need to be circumspect and understand that in 50 years, people will be saying the same thing as us?

In the meantime, I've got some kids on my lawn making an obscene snowman, this cannot continue.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Couldn't be summed up more perfectly in so few words.

Agreed. But I am pretty sure every generation for the last few hundred years or more felt and said the same thing. (Society going to hell in a hand basket.)