08/21/2024: Wide-eyed Wonderers and Explorers of the Unknown

I feel like I live in a time where nothing is unique or meaningful anymore. There was a time when everything we take for granted now was cherished; music comes to mind this morning as I listen to oldies in my favorite coffee shop. Back in the day music was new and it was beautiful. It must have been quite an era back in the roaring dancing days. Things just had more character and more heart in other times. 

Now it feels like everyone is used to things, and no one wants to be different or unique. Even movies these days lack that flare from the early 2000’s of classic epics and comedies. I miss my earlier years, and I’ve always felt like I didn’t quite fit into this timeline; when I hear old music or watch an old movie I wish I could be teleported to a party or a dance where everybody is carefree. 

I know each generation had - and has - its major problems, but there are certain parts of them that would be fun to see with my own eyes. I want to see creativity, expression, and innovation at work during the times when we were wide-eyed wonderers and explorers of the unknown. Now when I step outside or turn on the TV I usually wish I didn’t. 

Now we rely on AI, movie remakes, and false information, and it’s a hard pill to swallow when you realize that we’ve probably done every worthwhile thing that we’re going to do in our era of life on this planet. It seems like now that we’re too far gone for any real change that now people are starting to care, but of course only after they make that Instagram post or binge that show first. 

Even advocates of change are distracted and biased by their own vices, so it’s hard to picture the population as a whole coming together for the greater good any time soon. I know that I’m also not the exception; we’re all guilty. I guess the only thing we really have time to do in our lifetimes is to wish for change and live our lives however we see fit. So I guess that’s what I’ll do. I just wish I could do it in a cooler time. 

I think about how one day the last remaining people that were part of these great old generations will be gone, and we won’t know half of their experiences and stories. Those lives and accounts will no longer be accessible, and we won’t be able to ask anyone about them. 

There’s something to be said about a whole era of history only living on through a history book or old photographs. Meanwhile when you’re actively making history in the present, it’s hard to picture much of what you see being important enough to be remembered down the road. It just doesn’t feel like history though we make it every day. 

I know we haven't discovered or invented everything, but it feels like we’re putting our energy into really useless things nowadays. I don’t need my phone to have a mind of its own; I can write my own emails. I don’t need a car that can drive itself; I can still drive. I don’t need any more consumerism or distractions, I need viable options to choose from in the upcoming elections. I don’t need cancel culture and woke culture; I need people to be genuine and I need genuine change. I could go on, but the point is I could really use some authenticity and some honesty, not this walking-on-eggshells culture where you can’t be yourself without the fear of offending everyone on the planet. 

Obviously there are always people who are awful and who abuse this power, but there are countless others who are just wanting to be themselves, who want to create and explore new things and to not be pacified by all the distractions that they’re fed to remain submissive in a world that’s slowly crumbling before their very eyes.