2013 is my 36th New Year (and I’ve got lots of good friends for whom it is number 37). For those of us born in 1976 in the United States, there were (at one time) about 3.1 million of us–not a particularly high number given the booms before and since (there were about a million more in my son’s birth year, 2010). This doesn’t take into account those of us who were prevented from entering the world by contraception or abortion, but that’s only a statement–this isn’t a political blog. There will never be any more of us, and I’m sure an actuary could give us an idea of how many are left. That makes this post important, and I’m speaking to my cohort, specifically, but to all of us (humans, that is).
I know people my age who are dead before their time. I know people who have essentially been lost to addiction, to abuse, to every other form of death-in-life that our species has devised for itself. We mourn those who are gone, and of course, we help those who can be helped.
More important, though, halfway through our short lives, is that we pick up the slack they have left for us and continue to make our contributions to the Human Project. Every one of us has some unique thing that only we can do–raising our children, improving our communities, making art, understanding our world–and we must all press on an do it. Do it for those who have gone before, and for those who will follow.
Write that book, start that movement, talk to a lonely person, worship as you will, study that phenomenon. Your species needs it. You don’t have to have an advanced degree, or a huge pile of money, or enormous political power. Whatever it is that you are passionate about, whatever you “geek out” over, this is your thing.
My fellow Bicentennial Babies (and those close by): our time is probably ahead, not behind. Our generation isn’t known for its amazing positive contributions, and we have often been in the shadow of our parents and grandparents, but leadership now falls to us as more and more of them pass on. Be a part of the Human Project. Make your impact, and if your life is too messed up to make an impact, then now is the time to get things in order.
This is not a New Years Resolution as much as it is a challenge to make the most of what we’ve been granted in this life and to make our mark on the legacy our species will leave behind. Only you can do what only you can do.
Happy New Year!