If you have been following this blog’s A2Z Challenge then you will know that I have been trying to finish a novel, “Train Wreck”, and publishing a chapter below each post – at least until day 15 when I ran out of completed chapters – there is another one in progress – but if you have been following the novel and would like to receive the balance of the chapters – let me know in a comment. Meanwhile, more speculations as we reach the penultimate letter…
I had to resort to the dictionary for inspiration for today’s letter “Y”. Nothing from my book “Train Wreck” had leapt to mind. So Youth it is – and first I thought about two minor characters in one of Shakespeare’s plays (can’t remember which one), who are lamenting the fact that by the time they are old enough to have acquired wealth, they will be too old to enjoy it so why can’t money be given to the young and work left to the older generation? Or words to that effect – if I could remember the play, and the characters, I would check it out…
In the utopia that is Hawaii 2, Shakespeare’s characters would have found their dreams met – people of all ages, none of whom are richer (in money terms) than anyone else, are all provided with a Universal Income which allows them to spend their youth doing – well, whatever they want, or nothing at all, whilst still keeping body and soul together. (Should I, as a Humanist, use the word soul, without heavily qualifying it? That’s another story…) True, no one can have flashy cars or other trappings of a “rich” lifestyle, but you don’t miss what you don’t know and on Hawaii 2, no one has those trappings to be jealous of.
Given that many great ideas and work are achieved by people in their Youth, this is perhaps a very good idea although it is equally arguable that adversity -struggling to make one’s way in the world, both financially and intellectually – is the mother of invention. Will the youth of Hawaii 2 waste their young lives experimenting with drugs and bohemian living in Lowtown (Chapter 9) or will they throw themselves into whatever line of work has captured their imagination? Some will do one, some the other and who is to say either route is better or worse for achieving youthful brilliance…
The other thing which is associated with Youth, is Idealism. Here on Earth, we are well on the way towards the climate disaster which is the precursor to my book – the cataclysm that forces mankind to flee to the stars. And why are we headed in that direction? Because a small number of very rich people want to get richer at any cost and damn the consequence!. And because a great many other people, who I shall call Middle Class, are still bamboozled by the desire to attain wealth themselves, that they too are unwilling to face the hard choices which need to be made in order to avert the looming crisis. It is perhaps, a human trait that leads, politicians, in particular, to fail to deal with problems that are only going to manifest to the next generation when they will no longer be around to take the blame. The picture at the top is taken from an article pointing out that “Climate strike is not youthful idealism. It’s survivalist.” Greta Thunberg is not sweetly idealistic but deadly serious in pointing out what we are many of us failing to regognise.
Inequality, such as exists on many levels from the world economy down to individuals, is a great driver of idealism and Idealism tends to view the world in black and white, but as we grow older, trying to put idealism into practice, we become aware of shades of grey – things are more complicated than we youthfully imagine which is not to say that idealism is wrong and realism an excuse for doing nothing – rather that once the heady genius of youth is past, then the experience of later life should and can, be employed to tackle the things which are difficult, nitty-gritty rather than broad strokes…
As well as Realism, Idealism can also give way to Fanaticism which can be either good or bad, depending on the subject and form it takes. But for most of us, I feel, we find a balance, if we are driven beyond our youthful idealism into tempered realism and a life of service to our causes – a balance between living life for ourselves and living for what we can contribute to the world. As individuals, we come to recognise it is a relay race, not an individual sprint, and we must both receive and pass on the baton of our life’s work, be it practical, intellectual or emotional (not necessarily in that order). That can be difficult – as a teenager, I became fascinated by the idea of Bonsai – trees not only kept miniature, but sculpted into extraordinary shapes emanating nature. I soon learned that the most incredible, ancient-looking examples of this craft, were indeed ancient and that their current custodians had inherited them for a previous master and would hopefully find an apprentice to pass them on to. Sadly, I knew of no Bonsai master and my Bonsai dreams shrunk smaller than a Bonsai tree…
