All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry. G. K. Chesterton, Defendant (1901)
Slang changes as young people define their own metaphors for life and the times we are in helps define the story of our life as well. Today we are living in a "new normal". In 1918 -1919 our grandparents lived in a "new normal". Each generation lives in a new normal as society changes around us. In the great war, in the Pandemic that followed changed society, but no one, at that time, said people will have to die to keep the economy going. That statement is so sad and I feel sorry for the people that think that way. The poetry of their life must be dark and dreary.
However, my hope is that for the rest of us the poetry of life is full of life. I recognize that for the young the poetry of their life is not the same as for the Boomers, nor is our poetry of life the same as our Seniors.
How do you define the poetry of your life? What metaphors do you use to define your world, to build the paradigm in which you shape your view of the world? I think we Boomers have worked hard to define the slang that defined our world, the metaphors that create our poetry, and in my mind how we view the world.
Everyone has different metaphors that help them define their world, but the Boomers have shared some common history that has helped define us. We watched as man landed on the moon for the first time, we huddled under desks as we prepared for nuclear war, we believed that we would not live into our 30's because the Americans and the Russians would start the war that would destroy the world. We watched the American Dream unravel as President Kennedy was assassinated, and most of us saw the horror of war on TV as we watched young men our age, fighting in a foreign land, that we knew nothing about. We wrestled with these and other problems, Billy Joel in his wonderful song "We didn't start the fire" gives a brief outline of the history of our times and I think shows the forces that helped the Boomers develop the slang to create the metaphors of our life.
Each one of us reacted to the events of our lives and in the process, created the poetry of our lives, which we passed on to our children, who created their own poetry and metaphors for life--shaped, we hope, by our experiences. The nice thing about being a grandparent is we should try to understand the poetry and metaphors of our lives and pass these metaphors on to our grandchildren, so our children can dream and change the metaphors and poetry of their lives so that the dream of a positive future can live again.
Slang changes as young people define their own metaphors for life and the times we are in helps define the story of our life as well. Today we are living in a "new normal". In 1918 -1919 our grandparents lived in a "new normal". Each generation lives in a new normal as society changes around us. In the great war, in the Pandemic that followed changed society, but no one, at that time, said people will have to die to keep the economy going. That statement is so sad and I feel sorry for the people that think that way. The poetry of their life must be dark and dreary.
However, my hope is that for the rest of us the poetry of life is full of life. I recognize that for the young the poetry of their life is not the same as for the Boomers, nor is our poetry of life the same as our Seniors.
How do you define the poetry of your life? What metaphors do you use to define your world, to build the paradigm in which you shape your view of the world? I think we Boomers have worked hard to define the slang that defined our world, the metaphors that create our poetry, and in my mind how we view the world.
Everyone has different metaphors that help them define their world, but the Boomers have shared some common history that has helped define us. We watched as man landed on the moon for the first time, we huddled under desks as we prepared for nuclear war, we believed that we would not live into our 30's because the Americans and the Russians would start the war that would destroy the world. We watched the American Dream unravel as President Kennedy was assassinated, and most of us saw the horror of war on TV as we watched young men our age, fighting in a foreign land, that we knew nothing about. We wrestled with these and other problems, Billy Joel in his wonderful song "We didn't start the fire" gives a brief outline of the history of our times and I think shows the forces that helped the Boomers develop the slang to create the metaphors of our life.
Each one of us reacted to the events of our lives and in the process, created the poetry of our lives, which we passed on to our children, who created their own poetry and metaphors for life--shaped, we hope, by our experiences. The nice thing about being a grandparent is we should try to understand the poetry and metaphors of our lives and pass these metaphors on to our grandchildren, so our children can dream and change the metaphors and poetry of their lives so that the dream of a positive future can live again.
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