I can still see it. Even though it was a stormy night in Schenectady, New York, and I was but two seconds old, I can still see it.
Adoring faces. Adoring me and my kind. BABY BOOMERS.
Look at that. Two seconds old and already screaming. For my rights. For my right to a good time. For my right to use the world, hug the world, save the world.
Two seconds old and baby boomers had it all, knew it all, voiced it all.
Then somewhere along the line our own children grew up and informed us we are now what is referred to as AGING BABY BOOMERS.
Just because I turned my back on things for a few years?
I take umbrage.
But no. Not to worry. Baby boomers are fighting back, even though our children raise their eyes to heaven. I just read all about it in a column by Ellen Goodman. She assures me that me and my kind are still on top of the heap. We are still oh so fabulous--
As we now plow our way through middle age...first by inventing some other soubriquet--
According to authorities we have the chance to invent another stage of life. We have a chance to have what is now called an encore career. Sixty is not the new forty, see. Sixty is the new sixty. So there, all you wallowing people who are not lucky enough to be baby boomers.
If we are liberated from ambition, says Marc Freedman, the head of Civic Ventures (a think tank...aren't think tanks one of the finer inventions of a thought provoking life?), we can find ourselves in a position like Gore. Has-been to saint.
Also, according to this column, it is said that baby boomers have the classic pattern of returning to an earlier dream unclouded by the compromises of midlife.
All good. All good.
I will not take umbrage with the phrase AGING BABY BOOMER any longer.
Because there are zillions of us. We may need light in the dark, but, so, okay, inch over to the fast lane, and turn on those lights.
Comments