egermant的部落格

The media is depicting Boomers as old hippies going out to pasture. Actually that doesn't sound half bad. But, it isn't accurate. We are the same scholars and philosophers of a generation at the forefront of human rights since our very inception. The forty-five plus crowd that is determined to resist seniority with every healthful breath. We aren't going out to pasture. We are still the mainstream of society. We are the Bushes and the Clintons. Hillary and Pelosi. The Oprahs, Lenos and Borat. Susan Sarandon and Jack Nicholson. Lucas and Brokaw. We're students and soldiers, the children of the Greatest generation. We're Baby Boomers and living proud.

We began by ending Vietnam and we'll do our best to end Iraq. What we won't do is go to pasture. We're going to the gym. We are American society. We are parents and represent the most powerful financial and political factions of society. We re-wrote the rules then and we will do it again. Especially the rules of aging. We will resist the stereotypes of seniority aas we nurse our parents through their final years. But we have the Final third of our lives to live like we never have before. It is time to come together again for Boomer Power.

Still Resisting Seniority

I have just accepted the fact that I will never be a major league baseball star. Never mind that I am ten years older than the oldest player. Never mind that my peak was in Men's "C" Softball over ten years ago. Never mind that I still refuse to accept even the notion of arthritis. I'm still booming it out as if I can. I've got a boomer mentality, a boomer wife in the gym and a late boomer kid putting it all in perspective.

Look out for the boomers, we're here to stay. We love our country and we're still running it our way. Don't look in the senior villages, you won't find us there. No self-respecting baby boomer is going to become a senior without a fight. We may retire but not from society. We were raised on putting up good fights at least when it came to being told what to do. Officially, boomers were born between 1946 and 1964. We were the first post-bomb babies, the first generation raised with television, the first man-on-the-moon generation, the Woodstock generation, the generation that said, "Hell no we won't go" and "Burn the bra." We are not going to become seniors no matter how old we get.

You can tell a boomer from across the room but you can't tell her much. We're just beginning to forget what the youth of today hasn't figured out yet. We can be Yuppies or we can be Grannies. We can still mix it up with any bureaucracy you throw at us. We burned our draft cards and we will burn our AARP cards, too. We were never anti-American, just anti-war, anti-establishment. We can take it, we can dish it out and you can shove it where the sun don't shine. You mess with a boomer and you're messing up. Our parents won the big one, WWII, and we came after the party that followed. We're the first generation of privilege, the push-button generation and we're going to live longer than anyone before us ever has. And before we forget everything we ever knew, we're going to leave our mark.

We don't need no stinking Senior Cards. We've got cars that are bigger and faster. Our homes are larger and easier to live in. We've got microwaves, automatic garage openers, maids, nannies and gardeners. We've got first trust interest-only loans, home equity lines and reverse mortgages on the way. We've got our parents in old age homes and our children in after-school day care. We've got Prozac, Xanax and Viagara, baby. We can twist, we can hustle and we can two-step. We're working in and working out, re-sculpting our minds and our bodies and we're not sitting out the next phase. Our outlooks are broader and our inseams are tailored. We're badder and we're better, "bada-bing, bada-boom."

Gen "X" and "Y", your numbers haven't been called yet. We've grabbed hold of your computers and we're mastering our skills. We're already living in our retirement homes and we plan to live off of them, too. We were born into world peace and we've resisted war. When we were teens we refused to accept the status quo and set out to change the world. We found the better life our parents wanted for us. We've got it now and we're going to keep it. We own our own plot of land and we aren't ready to leave it yet. Call us boomers or don't call us at all. We don't need a call because we're already here and still coming on strong. We're still singing our songs and dancing our dance. We've turned the tables on society, built up our dream homes and now we're resisting age. God help us. We're not done yet. We've just begun to fight...and live.

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