Opus 2019-154: On the Street: The Millennial Battery Change

He was an impressive young man.  He was also a walking tragedy.

It started when my car refused to start.  After exhausting my limited mechanical ability, which consists of opening the hood and shaking my head, I called AAA.  It was around 100 in the shade and they told me it would be at least 50 minutes.  A half hour later it was the same story.  When I got the call that AAA was beside my car I was willing to be impressed by anyone, but he really was impressive.

As you would know it happens, it was the battery and he didn’t have the specific one I needed.  So they sent one out.  I can sit in a waiting room with a book forever and never talk to a soul.  I can also carry on a conversation.  Since we were waiting for the battery I got to asking him questions about himself.  He struck me as a hard worker and until his senior year in high school he was a good student.  He seemed to have his head on straight so I asked him if you was going to do this the rest of his life.  Did he have any dreams?  His answer, “No.”  It is hard as an old man to listen to a young man who seems already defeated by life.

His original dream was to be a lawyer but he claimed he could not afford the classes.  I kept throwing out ways he could do it and he kept telling me why it was impossible.  He knew how to show up on time and work hard but he didn’t know how to take risks.  I asked about family help and had an abridged statement that he didn’t get along with one side and never talked to the other.  Since it was none of my business, I let it go at that.  His family was a mess.

He was not married and had no interest in marriage.  He doesn’t see any women he would trust to bring up the next generation.  That is insightful but also a statement about himself.  He sees clearly enough that there is a lack of willingness to self sacrifice in his generation.  He sees how shallow the women he knows tend to be.  He is not living in his parent’s basement but I see him getting old and frustrated because he never invested himself in more than today.

Whom do you blame?  Obviously he has to be responsible for his own decisions, and to be fair, I did not hear him blaming anyone for his frustration.  I would look to parents who obviously did not set the example for him to follow.  I would also look at the teachers he had.  He was aware that they had bought into the Common Core Curriculum that was pushed so hard by the progressives who control education.  Was he a good student or did they just make him feel like a good student because the standards were too low.

I wish him the best.  He seemed a pleasant young man.  He had good looks and the ability to get along with strangers.  He knew how to work.  He is like so many who need a dream for their lives.

homo unius libri