They tell us that this month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie, The Godfather. It seems to me there are far too many 40th anniversaries of this or 50th anniversaries of that occurring lately. When we hear these announcements our first reaction is, “That can’t be right.” Then we check it out to be sure the information is correct because actually, we don’t want it to be correct.
We don’t want to know that the favourite song from our teens is 50 years old or that the guy who sang it just passed away. We don’t want to know that the guy with long hair who wound us up, gyrating on the stage, is celebrating his 70th birthday.
If we accepted those facts, we would have to admit that we are moving along the timeline right along with those images and sounds and heroes from our youth. OK, we’re getting older.
There was a news clip of the next generation of the Kennedy family, Joseph Kennedy III, running for Congress. I had to do a double check to be sure they said he was Robert Kennedy’s grandson.
I might have easily accepted the story if it was his son, but grandson was hard to take. He looks just like his old Grandpa, and as soon as I saw the story the magic and mystery of all the Kennedy era came back.
All of that was 50 years ago, and a couple of generations in between know very little of the stories that held the headlines for months and years. We struggled with atomic bombs, back yard shelters, a missile crisis and wars in faraway places that drew protests and caused riots.
We survived it all, worked hard, bought, saved, played by the rules and did our part. But now it seems the Baby Boomers are under fire. We are responsible for increases in health care and the projected burden on the pension system. They expect us to be contrite and apologetic. We should feel bad that our parents and children (and us) are all still here, as if it was poor planning on our part.
We should be telling them all to ‘go to hell.’ Put on your big boy pants, figure it out, go make your own money and save for your own rainy day.
It’s really not our problem that everyone is in debt and that no one can even think of owning a home. We had our financial challenges and, as each generation before us, we figured it out, without being bailed out.
Now, like it or not, we are all going to live to be 110 years old, and we will still be listening to the Eagles and the Beatles for the next 50 years, so quit whining and figure out how you’re going to look after us, yourselves and your kids. You’ll find out it’s not so easy.
I received an e-mail photo of a dog running full speed across an open field, his ears pinned back, his tongue out, and a smile on his face. The caption says, “Live like somebody left the gate open!”
We can’t sit around feeling sorry. It’s time to collect what we earned. After all, these are the good old days, the ones we have left, and we still have lots of time to make a difference. At least that’s what McGregor says.
