THE SILENT BOOMERS AMONG US

In an essay I'm currently working on about those members of the Silent Generation who decided to throw their lot in with the Boomers, I wrote. 

Author as a Silent Boomer

"A “Boomerized” Silent’s reality is the result of our having been torn between the generations that came before and after ours, of our being equally drawn to the courage of the Greatest Generation and the vision and science of the Boomers. Divided between allegiances to the Greatest and Boomer generations, we have borrowed from both camps. We know something about reading the Bible and can enjoy the beauty of an old fashioned hymn. We’ve also read On the Origin of Species. We’ve tasted the gritty dirt and limited vision of the Oklahoma dust bowl and heard the ocean spanning song of whales in the silences of deep space. We’ve glimpsed the black hole within the human breast that can make us do awful things and the monstrous black holes of the Cosmos, eating space and time. We have, with interest and curiosity, watched Gone With the Wind, John Wayne’s Sands of Iwo Jima and a few foreign films like 400 Blows, reading along with subtitles. Later, we found Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Federico Fellini’s 8 ½ and Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. Most recently, with perhaps a touch of skepticism and with our hearing aides tuned to theater settings, we have watched Hunger Games and the Twilight series and most recently, with great interest, Drive.

"Looking at those movie samples alone, the distances between a Silent’s points of reference become evident. They’re quite a stretch, aren’t they? Spanning those distances has been an exciting cultural journey in both space and time. Will all you Silent Boomers out there who have successfully bridged the gap within yourselves please stand up and give yourself a hand! We should be quite joyful."

Why I Called This Blog WELL SEASONED WRITING

As you will note, I've changed the title for this blog since I began, but I am a Silent Boomer, well seasoned by years in the vat...so to speak. Then I quit drinking!

Originally I had wanted a title that would suggest that age has something do with its contents. Like wine or whiskey, age adds a bouquet to the flavor of a writer's words... a certain elderberry flavor. One of the first things I noted when I took up the original title and did a Google search was that "seasoning" and "seasoned writing" put me among writers whose blogs are devoted to cooking. Cooks are an interesting bunch of radishes to begin with. Julia Child proved that a cook can be a lovable character, n'est-ce pas, while cooking and writing too.

Of course, I wanted the word "writing" or "writer" in the title so that a search for the topic of writing or writers might send people my way, but the words Boomer and Silent have a certain attraction too for Googlers. 

My first and my final selection for a title are not bad selections, then, if one hopes for a little success. Are they?

What's This Blog All About?

I'm 75 and hoping to address a community of intelligent seniors who enjoy lively writing. I'm one of that Generation called the Silent Generation who found himself aboard the Boomer's VW bus, heading in directions that would surprise me as much as they altered me.

Reminiscences about old times are wonderful, but they oughtn't to be all seniors have to talk about. A long time ago, when I was a young man, hitting up the bars, I realized that the alcoholics on the neighboring stools, the ones I saw every day in the neighborhood taverns I frequented, were stuck in the past. They carried around a set of stories that they used, I realized, to make themselves feel bad and to keep themselves trapped in their cycles of drink and despair. I'd hear a familiar story appear on the lips of Sam (for example) and I'd tell myself, "Well, Sam's not going to return to work this afternoon." I was frequently right, and I swore that would never happen to me. However, if one spends enough time in the company of heavy drinkers, he'll soon find he's drinking pretty heavily himself...won't he? Ha! Ha! There's the rub, as Shakespeare would say.

Alcoholics aren't the only ones who tell themselves stories that hold them down and create despair. Everyone falls into such traps at times. But, there's a pile of difference between using one's past from which to create solid ideas about reality and using tragic memories to beat oneself up with.

Most of what I put in this blog will aim toward the enlightenment I've experienced rather than dwelling on the despair that forced me to change, but there will be a few hellish moments! Sex might even creep into the discussion, and that's one scary subject. Many seniors might not be comfortable aboard this craft (analogy intended) where all sorts of ideas are likely to appear...thoughts and experiences that might make the faint of heart faint dead away.

Feel free to sit down, pull off your socks or support hose, make yourself comfortable. I'll be checking in every day or so to see who's showed up and add another piece of lively writing for your entertainment and enlightenment...

 ...I hope.

Might even point you to where a couple of my books are stocked on the internet and to books I enjoy reading and to books I'm working on.