Sunday, September 03, 2006
Behold, I am a Tweener.
Classified by various news agencies, USA Today for one, as people who were born in the first five years of the 1960's, and who are not Boomers or X-ers.
We are the new (old?) lost generation. It depends on who's doing the looking.
We missed Woodstock, though we remember it peripherally, and many of us didn't feel comfortable attending Lollapalooza.
Personally, my music tastes testify to this damnable position.
I like, and remember, Three Dog Night, the Bee Gees, Elton John and on to punk and post punk and electronica and now emo.
I appreciated the seventies for the warm fuzzies it gave me, the eighties for the cold detachment it gave me, the nineties for the solidarity it gave me, and now the 00's, for the confusion it gives me.
One drawback to being a Tweener is, you don't really fit in anywhere. You're a little too young and a little too old at the same time.
Having been exposed to a variety of cultural phenomena, you look kinda like a deer caught in headlights. This because you're trying to absorb what happened before you came of age and after.
But the flip side to not fitting in as a Tweener is you can identify with counter culture.
You can read 'On the Road' and relate. 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' definitely strikes a chord. Existentialism raises it's ugly head and you can identify with being caught in a meaningless existence. Holden Caulfield, Cool Hand Luke, Nietzsche, Hemingway, Williams Carlos Williams, the characters from 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh' by Chabon, all represent and speak to the Tweener mentality. People who are caught up in times that are fluid, slightly vacuous, and are confused about their identities.
In the seventies, I wore bell bottoms. In the eighties, I wore peg legs. In the nineties, I wore flannel shirts. Now in the 00's, I opt for the bauhausian simplicity of a tee shirt and jeans with sandals. You know, something undeclared and nondescript. Largely this is evidence for being flustered at how I should present myself, as I don't know if I'm a hippy, a disco man, a heavy metal dude, a punk, a prep, a grunger, a ibiza denizen, or what. I mean, ultimately, I'm a little of all of these things, so to avoid confusion, I opt for the simple when it comes to dress now.
But the thing is, the clothes were as far as it got when it came to 'joining'. I was too young to protest Kent State or burn a draft card, I was just wise enough in years to know disco was a sidebar in the musical lexicon, I was married and had been working fulltime for at least nineteen years when grunge came around, and on and on. I could never reach a critical mass with enough people in my own age group to be able to say 'I am a punk' or 'I am a hippie' or what have you.
In the final analysis, I would recommend to other tweeners the concept of Flow. Flow is the realization that nothing sticks, so don't identify too closely with something. The Watchword for flow is, everything is changing, so just ride the waves as the come and go.
One insight Tweeners may be able to offer boomers or x-ers is, if you want something you can rely on, you have to look deeper than what day to day life has to offer. Having not fit in for so long, which has cast them in the terms of observers, Tweeners have a knack for seeing through the B.S. of fads and so on and have an eye for what lasts. Using myself as an example, I look to greek rationalism and ancient esoteric christianity for continuity and stability. I recognize that fads are just that, and will change as the decades do.
So this is to my fellow Tweeners. That new (old?) lost generation who never has really found itself. To all those who observed without joining, who appreciated without identifying, and so on.
Keep yer head down and yer spirits up!
Classified by various news agencies, USA Today for one, as people who were born in the first five years of the 1960's, and who are not Boomers or X-ers.
We are the new (old?) lost generation. It depends on who's doing the looking.
We missed Woodstock, though we remember it peripherally, and many of us didn't feel comfortable attending Lollapalooza.
Personally, my music tastes testify to this damnable position.
I like, and remember, Three Dog Night, the Bee Gees, Elton John and on to punk and post punk and electronica and now emo.
I appreciated the seventies for the warm fuzzies it gave me, the eighties for the cold detachment it gave me, the nineties for the solidarity it gave me, and now the 00's, for the confusion it gives me.
One drawback to being a Tweener is, you don't really fit in anywhere. You're a little too young and a little too old at the same time.
Having been exposed to a variety of cultural phenomena, you look kinda like a deer caught in headlights. This because you're trying to absorb what happened before you came of age and after.
But the flip side to not fitting in as a Tweener is you can identify with counter culture.
You can read 'On the Road' and relate. 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' definitely strikes a chord. Existentialism raises it's ugly head and you can identify with being caught in a meaningless existence. Holden Caulfield, Cool Hand Luke, Nietzsche, Hemingway, Williams Carlos Williams, the characters from 'The Mysteries of Pittsburgh' by Chabon, all represent and speak to the Tweener mentality. People who are caught up in times that are fluid, slightly vacuous, and are confused about their identities.
In the seventies, I wore bell bottoms. In the eighties, I wore peg legs. In the nineties, I wore flannel shirts. Now in the 00's, I opt for the bauhausian simplicity of a tee shirt and jeans with sandals. You know, something undeclared and nondescript. Largely this is evidence for being flustered at how I should present myself, as I don't know if I'm a hippy, a disco man, a heavy metal dude, a punk, a prep, a grunger, a ibiza denizen, or what. I mean, ultimately, I'm a little of all of these things, so to avoid confusion, I opt for the simple when it comes to dress now.
But the thing is, the clothes were as far as it got when it came to 'joining'. I was too young to protest Kent State or burn a draft card, I was just wise enough in years to know disco was a sidebar in the musical lexicon, I was married and had been working fulltime for at least nineteen years when grunge came around, and on and on. I could never reach a critical mass with enough people in my own age group to be able to say 'I am a punk' or 'I am a hippie' or what have you.
In the final analysis, I would recommend to other tweeners the concept of Flow. Flow is the realization that nothing sticks, so don't identify too closely with something. The Watchword for flow is, everything is changing, so just ride the waves as the come and go.
One insight Tweeners may be able to offer boomers or x-ers is, if you want something you can rely on, you have to look deeper than what day to day life has to offer. Having not fit in for so long, which has cast them in the terms of observers, Tweeners have a knack for seeing through the B.S. of fads and so on and have an eye for what lasts. Using myself as an example, I look to greek rationalism and ancient esoteric christianity for continuity and stability. I recognize that fads are just that, and will change as the decades do.
So this is to my fellow Tweeners. That new (old?) lost generation who never has really found itself. To all those who observed without joining, who appreciated without identifying, and so on.
Keep yer head down and yer spirits up!
