Chapter 7.0.1 (Draft)

COMING OF AGE

I was having a hard time seeing myself the beneficiary of such a convoluted set of circumstance. Like I said it, it seemed like some kind of a grift. Too good to be true. Just plain bizarre. Why didn't the English attorney feel comfortable spelling things out for me over the phone?  I like to fix things and this whole story seemed somehow broken. Well, now with nothing more pressing and a new knee to boot, the game was afoot so to speak.

You get a change in perspective from living in the Villages. It sneaks-up on you. Living among older people, even very active ones, you kind of forget about the youthful energy that is the essential machinery of the world.

I couldn't help but overhear the excited conversation around me on the plane. People talking about new schools, visiting relatives , the hippest nightclubs they hoped to experience. nightclubs. Ikind of remember days like that. But for me, even though I had traveled extensively, it always seemed to that those things were what you read about or heard about, not did.

The conversation that struck me was from an older couple about Kids and Travel in the modern world.

"We didn't expect to and didn't go actually anywhere. Even as my Mom and Dad got all richer, they still didn't consider travel especially outside of America."

"Yeah, I remember when my Aunt and Uncle hit it big. They invested in a pizza place setting-up a franchise operation."

"I remember that, we were in High School, right?

"Yeah, they got super rich and then they bought that big camper/trailer. They could have afforded a trip to Tahiti!"

My guess was that this was a pair of empty nesters finally taking the opportunity to travel with their kid's school schedule no longer dictating the schedule.

I often think about the changes that have happened during my lifetime especially those that have to do with the general affluence of people. And, one of the signs of affluence to me is travel. But, it's also about curiosity about the world. So I am surprised I know so many people regardless of their social class, that haven't really traveled and haven't seen the world. I think, especially, in the United States there's a sense that the world is dangerous. There's an irony in that. Since the US is really probably more dangerous in terms of gun related deaths maybe even traffic related deaths than most other places in the world where you might want to travel.

It is a basic animal instinct that if you have something somebody else will want to take it. And if you have something, you'll wanna do what you can to protect it. Americans can see themselves as the wealthy people compared to the rest the world. And from that perspective, there is this an inate sense of fear about losing what they already have whether they really feel they've earned it or not.

Back in the day I liked to say that "I had never really been that young." 

When I was younger, that I was already busy and responsible. A lot of the adults around me didn't seem like they were. I wanted to explore the world. I wanted to see what things were about. I wanted to help change things, if I could. 

I think the typical young people activities were always something someone else did. Like a marketing campaign where you read about the "good life" and are primed to spend more to get premium ice cream. A 21-year-old might be more likely to spend the night out dancing and spending this day sleeping on the beach, or if they were by the pool, on  the loungers.

I had no problem staying up all night. I didn't really think those activities were that interesting. They actually seem kind of exhausting and I wondered why peoples put so much of their energy on that kind of thing there's a popular song now by a band that is about staying out all night trying to "get lucky". And I think maybe that's what it's all about. Like an animal instinct where people just can't resist the urge to try to find someone to be with just because their libido is so high at that age.

I got off the plane and walked through the airport. I was amazed to see how many lovely young people were there, dressed in clothes that drew attention to them unlike the adults that, for the most part, we're wearing quiet clothes. Maybe the adults were the people returning home to England where dress is pretty much more conservative, even in urban areas, but especially for older people. 

Younger people are like peacocks wanting to draw attention to themselves again this is mating plumage.

Those people were pretty lucky. I didn't have the wherewithal to do that. But I didn't see them as grateful for the opportunity ... more like a global sense of entitlement that associated with this rampant consumer where peope want more and more of whatever they can get.