To Everything There is a Season

I graduated high school back in 1985.  My years in high school were at the epitome of the mid 80's.  John Hughes' movies masterfully defined our generation, our fashion sense and our secular ideologies.  High school life was just that simple.  The Breakfast Club asked it best; were you a jock, a princess, a freak, a nerd or a loadie?


As we entered into our senior year, still wearing our shirt collars flipped up and Members Only jackets, I vividly remember the age of neon clothing mingling with lacy fingerless gloves descending upon the incoming freshman class.  Their music lacked the synchronized guitar-techno sound that we had grown to love. How could Depeche Mode or Kylie Minogue replace The Go-Go's, B-52's or The Bangles?


Who were these kids, and what on earth could they have been thinking?


Our age of preppy and outcries for social justice were being swallowed up in a sea of ego-centric, tacky neon orange/yellow, and we had nothing to say about it. We were the ones leaving high school.  We now had the huge task of actually changing the world, not just talking about it.


How did we do?  Did we positively impact a generation--or generations to come?  Or did we fall into that crevasse of mediocrity and entitlement, with little regard for anyone else but those in our inner circle?


High school was so much easier than real life.  You could have ideologies backed up with personal philosophies and still you were too young to be expected to actually DO anything.   It was to real-life what club soccer practice is to the World Cup.


So here I sit at 40 something.  Remembering how I wanted to change the world-- or at least contribute a big effort in that change.  I wanted to help people in ways that now seem so far-fetched to my suburban, upper middle class self.  With age comes the fear of getting hurt.  When you're young you are invincible! With time comes those adult responsibilities that make us place other's needs (children's, spouses, aging parents...)  ahead of our own dreams and self fulfillment.  And rightly so...


Because to everything there is a season.


Funny how quickly our season of summer slips away.  Thank goodness fall is still full of hope and promise!  Now-- what was it that I meant to do, again???