All of my life, I've felt somewhat out of sorts with the times. Except for one brief period -- the "Sixties," a time that mostly occurred in the early '70's.
As the mainstream U.S. news media struggled to cope with the massive political, social, and cultural upheavals of that age, the word-loafers at Time/Newsweek et. al., decided that the Baby Boomers were the "me" generation, i.e., only about ourselves, and our individual gain.
These commentators, all of whom were older than us, properly identified a nihilistic narcissism that was apparent in the leading-edge (fame-seeking) Boomers they encountered all around them, which means here in New York. But, like most of the "journalists" in this town, then and now, they didn't get out and about enough. They didn't visit the rest of this vast continent very often, and when they did, they complained about the lack of amenities, instead of probing the essence of what our generation was seeking away from the centers of wealth and power.
I'm not a New Yorker, never have been, and never will be. Most of the people who formed the core movements of the "Sixties" did not grow up in New York. The signature document of the era -- the Port Huron Statement -- was created in Michigan, the state where I grew up.
I am a prototypical Midwesterner in many ways. Despite years of acculturating myself to the coastal elites (East and West) that dominate our society, I share the values of those who grew up in the Midwest and also to a great extent, in the South. The fiction I read and loved included Hemingway's Upper Peninsula stories and Faulkner's tortured Georgia-based novels.
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Enough about me. If I go on like this, all it would accomplish is to confirm what the hacks and wags of thirty years ago believed to be true about me and my kind.
The truth is more complex. Whether we grew up in New York, San Francisco, Miami, Detroit, Chicago, Memphis, Tulsa, Phoenix, or Seattle -- or anywhere else across the U.S. -- we sensed then and know in our hearts now that we no longer have the luxury of holding on to regional biases. (If only New Yorkers would catch up to the rest of us!)
This goes beyond our country. If we are living in Buenos Aires, or Santiago, or Mexico City, or Ottawa, Beijing, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Dacca, Delhi, Kabul, Tehran, Moscow, Hamburg, Stockholm, Nice, London, or Papaete, none of us can any longer afford the luxury of thinking only about ourselves, our country, our tribe.
Of course, we all should think first of our families -- that is each and every person's primary duty, to take care of our own. But, I am afraid we are entering a period where the good of any one family must be carefully considered in the context of what is best for all families, not just on the next street or in the next town or state but all over this world.
Global climate change and other environmental issues will force us to learn finally how to think as a species. Not as Japanese or Chinese, French, Pakistani, Iranian or German. There is no time for that.
Not as gay, straight, lesbian, transsexual. There is no time for that. Not as married or single, cheating or faithful. There is no time for that.
Not as rich or poor, employed or unemployed. There is no time for that.
Not as pretty or ugly, healthy or disabled, tall or short, fat or thin, or any of the other ways we find to distinguish us one from the other. There is no time for that.
Not Jewish or Christian or Buddhist or Moslem or Hindu, there's no time for that.
There's no time to figure out the Catholic-Protestant issue, not to mention the Mormans. There is no time for the Shias or Sunnis to wage war over their ancient differences.
Quite honestly, there is no time left for any of this nonsense.
But the good news is there is still time left for love, sex, and a belief in our common future as a species. We either will survive or we will not. But of this much I am sure. We will never get to the future by exploiting our differences.
We will only be part of the future on this planet by sharing our strengths.
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