Some of my children are late Millennials. It's important to remember that 9/11 happened in the middle of their barely conscious years. The world and its optimism changed that day in ways Millennials might not realize. I like your description of them (and yourself) as children of autumn. Everything began to fade on 9/11. We became a more stringent people. Distance and irony are an understandable reaction.
Some of my children are Gen Z. I see in them a focus. The world has always sucked for them. They are in winter and they know it. We're in good hands with them.
I am grateful to see Yeats quoted with a poem not "The Second Coming". I'm so sick of seeing that one line used by every hack writer that I forget how marvelous Yeats is. Merry Christmas!
I agree with the sentiment entirely, save one bit. We are the magi, there are no magi ever coming to gift us. We millennials are the ones seeing the end, and some Zoomer or Alpha baby is going to recieve our gifts.
Eggs, Uranium, and planned community? Mayhaps a secular crown with a holy inscription? I'm not a good gift giver.
Loved it, Dave. I’m a 1984-baby, so I guess I’m either Y or early Millennial. Point is: from what I’ve seen in my own life, most everyone my age either checked out on drugs and/or outrage, or morally and intellectually debased themselves for some safety pen job. Those of us who took the hard and unsure route while fighting off rage and vanity demons seem to be in relatively good shape.
I’m hoping and believing that those of us who stay true and keep faith in a spiritual and wholesome future will be great and necessary storytellers in our fifties. It’s still sad, though, to think of all the wonderful friends I had in my twenties who are now broken and diseased souls, some of it their fault, some just fate. They may have been found wanting, but they were good for a while.
I believe the difficulty for us lies in how much effort is required to extract the good worth saving from the wreckage. We grew up in a strange time, where many great and terrible events very akin to what our grandparents/great-grandparents faced (blessedly some of much lesser severity due to God's grace) occurred during our childhood and college years - we became aware of the world as mere babes, watching events like Enron, 9/11, the dot com bubble, war in the middle east, massive political polarization, and most recently COVID only barely able to comprehend them. Our psyche never got a break, and unlike those before us, we're in an over-connected global society; we do not have the mercy of Ecclesiastes 3:22, as convenience abounds in the West and distractions intentionally invade.
So many prefer the escape of "current thing" because of it's easiness or some diagnosis (Lord forgive me, I'm one of them who guiltily hides his head in the sand often). If it's not ignoring the issues, I notice Millennials are especially susceptible to nostalgia even when they are consciously aware of it's dangers. I personally find the "liminal" and "late 90's/early 2000's" type member-berry posts dangerous as they are a window into a childhood I know I experienced, but somehow had ripped away from me without ever having "grown up" out of like one is supposed to. You have to wear a mental tyvek suit to touch these threads, they're easier to doomscroll than anything else I can find on the internet. You've touched on this awhile ago, but what we need is coziness, not nostalgia - the problem I perceive, at least for myself, is those concepts are nearly inseparably interlocked. It's functionally radioactive.
Thus here we stand as you say, struggling to find that which must be preserved, hearts heavy with grief for what we realize has been lost, minds angry at our immediate forebears for the lies they promised that never came to be, eyes anxiously darting around seeking for the next great catastrophe we instinctually know to be coming.
Great piece. Love how you are able to tie in eternal Christian truths with our day-to-day challenges.
If we are children of winter, it follows that our children will be children of spring. After Thanksgiving, my dad said something to the effect of:
“You have real friends in the way that reminds me of what my parents had. It’s something that your mother and I lack.”
The beauty of the state of America today is that the battle lines are relatively clearly demarcated. The boomer generation took Christian ethics for granted, and many were blindsided by the poison in hollywood, education, academia, etc. We are well aware of these challenges and have plenty of time to at least plan an alternative -- even if it requires sacrifices.
In my immediate vicinity, I see people participating in parish life to a much greater degree than I’ve ever seen. A handful of independent Catholic classical schools have either just started or are growing. Others are working together in homeschool collectives. Parents are choosing to live with less so they can be at home with their kids. People talk about their faith more openly not just with strangers, but more importantly with their children. Their experiences in the “negative world” have given them language to clearly articulate deep spiritual truths and Church history in a way that most of the boomer generation simply never learned.
I’m no Calvinist, but maybe the best analogy would by Plymouth rock. A group of families separating themselves and creating something new and beautiful.
Money may delay the material fruits of spiritual sickness, but it can’t prevent it forever. As the mask slips further and further off, we’re best off having our own kind of Noah’s ark in the form of tight-knit communities for when the inevitable flood comes.
Well written. Thank you.
Some of my children are late Millennials. It's important to remember that 9/11 happened in the middle of their barely conscious years. The world and its optimism changed that day in ways Millennials might not realize. I like your description of them (and yourself) as children of autumn. Everything began to fade on 9/11. We became a more stringent people. Distance and irony are an understandable reaction.
Some of my children are Gen Z. I see in them a focus. The world has always sucked for them. They are in winter and they know it. We're in good hands with them.
I am grateful to see Yeats quoted with a poem not "The Second Coming". I'm so sick of seeing that one line used by every hack writer that I forget how marvelous Yeats is. Merry Christmas!
I agree with the sentiment entirely, save one bit. We are the magi, there are no magi ever coming to gift us. We millennials are the ones seeing the end, and some Zoomer or Alpha baby is going to recieve our gifts.
Eggs, Uranium, and planned community? Mayhaps a secular crown with a holy inscription? I'm not a good gift giver.
I am rather disappointed in Dev’s argument here, because he ought to know that harm reduction is squalor. He made a fifteen minute video on it!
What virtues were given from Hanks-giving and what opportunity was squandered in such ego worship?
Loved it, Dave. I’m a 1984-baby, so I guess I’m either Y or early Millennial. Point is: from what I’ve seen in my own life, most everyone my age either checked out on drugs and/or outrage, or morally and intellectually debased themselves for some safety pen job. Those of us who took the hard and unsure route while fighting off rage and vanity demons seem to be in relatively good shape.
I’m hoping and believing that those of us who stay true and keep faith in a spiritual and wholesome future will be great and necessary storytellers in our fifties. It’s still sad, though, to think of all the wonderful friends I had in my twenties who are now broken and diseased souls, some of it their fault, some just fate. They may have been found wanting, but they were good for a while.
An excellent essay! Merry Christmas to you!
I believe the difficulty for us lies in how much effort is required to extract the good worth saving from the wreckage. We grew up in a strange time, where many great and terrible events very akin to what our grandparents/great-grandparents faced (blessedly some of much lesser severity due to God's grace) occurred during our childhood and college years - we became aware of the world as mere babes, watching events like Enron, 9/11, the dot com bubble, war in the middle east, massive political polarization, and most recently COVID only barely able to comprehend them. Our psyche never got a break, and unlike those before us, we're in an over-connected global society; we do not have the mercy of Ecclesiastes 3:22, as convenience abounds in the West and distractions intentionally invade.
So many prefer the escape of "current thing" because of it's easiness or some diagnosis (Lord forgive me, I'm one of them who guiltily hides his head in the sand often). If it's not ignoring the issues, I notice Millennials are especially susceptible to nostalgia even when they are consciously aware of it's dangers. I personally find the "liminal" and "late 90's/early 2000's" type member-berry posts dangerous as they are a window into a childhood I know I experienced, but somehow had ripped away from me without ever having "grown up" out of like one is supposed to. You have to wear a mental tyvek suit to touch these threads, they're easier to doomscroll than anything else I can find on the internet. You've touched on this awhile ago, but what we need is coziness, not nostalgia - the problem I perceive, at least for myself, is those concepts are nearly inseparably interlocked. It's functionally radioactive.
Thus here we stand as you say, struggling to find that which must be preserved, hearts heavy with grief for what we realize has been lost, minds angry at our immediate forebears for the lies they promised that never came to be, eyes anxiously darting around seeking for the next great catastrophe we instinctually know to be coming.
Great piece. Love how you are able to tie in eternal Christian truths with our day-to-day challenges.
If we are children of winter, it follows that our children will be children of spring. After Thanksgiving, my dad said something to the effect of:
“You have real friends in the way that reminds me of what my parents had. It’s something that your mother and I lack.”
The beauty of the state of America today is that the battle lines are relatively clearly demarcated. The boomer generation took Christian ethics for granted, and many were blindsided by the poison in hollywood, education, academia, etc. We are well aware of these challenges and have plenty of time to at least plan an alternative -- even if it requires sacrifices.
In my immediate vicinity, I see people participating in parish life to a much greater degree than I’ve ever seen. A handful of independent Catholic classical schools have either just started or are growing. Others are working together in homeschool collectives. Parents are choosing to live with less so they can be at home with their kids. People talk about their faith more openly not just with strangers, but more importantly with their children. Their experiences in the “negative world” have given them language to clearly articulate deep spiritual truths and Church history in a way that most of the boomer generation simply never learned.
I’m no Calvinist, but maybe the best analogy would by Plymouth rock. A group of families separating themselves and creating something new and beautiful.
Money may delay the material fruits of spiritual sickness, but it can’t prevent it forever. As the mask slips further and further off, we’re best off having our own kind of Noah’s ark in the form of tight-knit communities for when the inevitable flood comes.
Merry Christmas, and happy New Year
Thank you for blessing me with this!