Its Friday night and you would rather stay in than go out.
You dream in black and white and your celebrity crush is Gregory Peck in the
noble role of Atticus Finch. Smoking a tobacco pipe or reading a book with wine
(or coffee, or tea, or whiskey) in hand sounds more attractive than entering into the twenty/
thirty something rage of the weekend. I mean what are those kids doing these
days anyway!
If you identify with these sentiments my friend, then you are
an old soul and this post is for you. See, I know you because I am one of you.
I often wish that I were my grandma’s age and I long for a day in which I did
not live. I wish that creativity was necessary for survival, commitment was not
an option, and the stillness of nature was not drowned out by modern pop noise. I
also want romantic relationships to be clearly defined, clearly followed and come with much less baggage (what the H is the difference between being exclusive and being
official).
I write to you my wise sage because I often find that you
are ashamed of your antique desires. You have been guilted into one too many
nights out when you really would rather stay home and paint, whittle wood (I
don’t know). But I am here to tell you that it is time to take a stand out of
your rickety ole rockin chair. It is time to stop apologizing for your old
fashioned flare and bestow some class on this generation of hooligans. Please
allow me to tell you what you need to know and what you need to do about it.
What You Need To Know
You value personality!
You know that the personality is infinitely deep and always changing. This makes
its discovery the most enthralling adventure in the world. You like adventure. You have found that the same personality is in
one moment a giant children’s museum filled with scientific experiments and brainteasers
and in the next moment transforms into a reflective art gallery with expression
as unique as its owner. This is why you
would rather sit and have a conversation with a friend than go to a wild party.
You want to learn more about your friend. You want to explore another corner of
their personhood. The depth of a story from your friend’s childhood is more
wondrous than the flashy lights and bumping bodies that serve to hinder you in
the discovery of your peers. Our generation has put up many barriers to your
quest to explore the personality and you
find many of these things to be a waste of time.
Your love for personality also explains why you value older pop culture. This is
why you feel disconnected from the Biebers and the Kesha’s of today. You
recognize that there was a time when the status quo for a job well done meant
that one poured every part of himself into his task. This type of “soul work”
produced creation that reflected the personality of its creator. This still
happens, but it is no longer the norm. As our society continues to devalue
personhood, we also have devalued everything that the person creates leaving us
with lifeless trinkets as entertainment.
You recognize these trinkets for exactly what they are and you pass them
over in search of the real thing.
Second, What You Need
To Do
Matthew 5:13 says, “ You are the salt of the earth. But if
salt loses its saltiness how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good
for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled under foot.
Sure. If salt loses its saltiness, it needs to be thrown out
but that doesn’t change the fact that we still need new salt. We need salty
salt.
My old fashioned friend, YOU ARE THAT SALT and our world needs some new seasoning. Your
generation needs you to stop trying to be hip when you know you just want to be
human. See, your peers are aware that the postmodern life style is too
complicated, too busy and too isolated but only you actually know what to do
about it.
You can teach the world how to slow down by reminding them
how fascinating a conversation can be. To learn the interests of someone new,
no matter how different they are is your forte. The more interest you take in
others, the more interest they will start to take in those around them.
Stop allowing shallow conversation to happen around you. If
you walk away thinking that we are spiraling into a black hole of teddy bears
with exes on their eyes, ask your self, “How could I have used my excellent
vocabulary, appreciation for history and superior IQ to raise the level of that
conversation without seeming judgmental.” You have the power to change the
conversation and possibly some intelligence along the way..
Lastly, stop observing and start creating. Because
personality is your thing, you have the power to create beauty in a whole new
way because you have classy taste and the help of modern technology. Do you
love to read classics? Start a book club or better yet, write some new
classics. Do you love music? Educate your friends on what quality music sounds
like and how it can speak to the soul. Do you like art? Start creating art that
will remind us that we were created to be good. Whatever your interest may be,
start pouring your own personality into your work, share it with others, and
teach them to do the same. This will start resurrect the depth that once
existed in our culture.
Kindred spirit, the more that you insert your classy ways of
the past into our monotonous days of the present, the more you can change the
world by simply being you. So be proud of who you are and re teach the world
how to live the good life. Thank you for your lovely life ideals… now I am
going to go watch Singing in the Rain.
Mal
