21 September 2008
A rant about lifestyle choices
My whole stance on “heated discussions over lifestyle choices” is that I rather not have them. In fact, I would like it better if in the next year no one over the age of 40 would ask me about my career path or love life. This is because I think there is an overemphasis of these two things in the minds of old people. How come no one ever asks me about the development of my hobbies? Or which books I am currently reading? Or about how I feel about the current state of the economy? All they ever want to know is what I am going to do when I grow up and how things are going between my boyfriend and I. And whatever my response, the result is always the same: unsolicited personally biased advice.
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4 comments:
So what books are you reading right now? :)
I have read part of "The Little Prince" (sometimes I read 'em a little bit online and put them on my wishlist)
"Why we love..." is on my wishlist.
Anna Karenina is too heavy for me, but might read it, who knows
I haven't heard of "Founding Brothers..."
Wow, you do a lot of parallel reading!
I am reading "Godel Escher Bach: the eternal Golden Braid"
WHAT?!?!?!?!
Well, Here is a hypothesis. Maybe true, maybe not.
Older people only ask these questions, because they are inherently projecting, and trying to relive (through _your_ yet-to-be-expended youth), either
(a) some of the things they think they did well, or
(b) some of the things they regret not having done when they were young
(Note, that the list of stuff that does not span either a or b is, perhaps, null).
This could explain why most questions seek information about "the current level of your perceived energetic involvement (and any emergent/clear success) in education/early-career and/or love". These are topics which
(1) actually call for more up-front investment in your youth (and are harder to execute and capitalize upon once you grow old, and are
(2) of greatest broadly-shared perceived significance across most humans (Note that hobbies/pleasures/sport, which may actually bring even more instant happiness in youth, are less widely shared across people in general, so even harder to appreciate across that age gap)
Maybe they are not just projecting, but upon meeting a young person feel reminded about the potential of youth, and the relentlessly accelerating approach of the time when all that potential will have been just that - unrealized potential - unless either luck or effort, or some mix of both transformed it into something that maybe worth looking back upon, and reflecting with a sense of "that was time well spent"(whatever that is...) from the quagmire of responsibilities that come with the loss of youth, and the onset of maturity & stability.
It is a hypothesis.
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