I am a member of the baby boomer generation and was raised in a world where the idea that I had to think about my desires, my future, and my needs was the normal way to behave, was the right choice and the only approach to overcome all of life’s challenges.
ME had to be the center of my thoughts, of my preoccupations, of all my efforts to reach my goal in life: to become who I am.
Two weeks ago I celebrated or more exactly some people wanted me to celebrate what they call an important birthday, a stepping stone in life for all of us who reached that age…
Yes, last week I turned seventy.
My god or my devil, SEVENTY…I cannot believe it, where did life go? Where did my dreams, my fears, my wishes, my successes, my failures go?
Are they still around me, making me, sculpting me, changing me, making me happy or destroying me?
Did I fulfill the purpose of the ME generation? Did I find myself? Did I find peace?
Do I have answers about the eternal questions of life, love, friendship, career, and relationships?
I am now seventy with all that number means…
Wiser that I were at 20 or 30, but less strong that I was at 40… Full of stories and adventures to share but less of a desire to conquer the world like I had most of my life…
Still lots of energy but using it with discernment… is that being wise or cautious? Is it being wise or full of fears?
My imagination remains the primary power, but choosing the paths of possible realization instead of throwing myself into new adventures without giving any thought to its purpose.
In short, I am boring myself…and spend a lot of time thinking about the past, about some people, about who and what and why, but not thinking of the next step or the next adventure that much anymore …
Is that BECOMING OLD? Is that a definition of getting old? Or is it another moment in time when what is happening does not coincide with my reality?
Most of us reach the different steps of life, youth, maturity and then the AGE DE RAISON, thinking that it is forever, that nothing will or can stop us, that it is a perpetual story in the making… We just have to find the next chapter…
Yes it is the perpetual search of the ME generation…looking for answers and questions about ME and to want to be an artist is probably the most obvious search for…ME
AN ARTIST?
I am wondering more and more if the definition of the artist can even be expressed…what does ARTIST mean?
All my life I would hear from everyone around me, from friends and people met on social occasions, in a supermarket or in a meeting with lawyers, from my garbage collector or the head of the public library:
He’s an artist, how can you trust him?
Or
You know, he’s an artist, so you know…what can you expect from his kind of brain?
Or
He’s an artist, so deep, so intense, so intelligent, so creative…
Or
Really? Really? An artist? How does he make a living?
Or
An artist? What does he do for a living?
What does it really mean to be an artist?
To see the world in a different way?
To bring to the world a different vision of reality?
To accept the perpetual changes and be able to adapt to them by having a different attitude every day?
Do we completely lose control of whom we are by accepting to change according to different values, different fashions, different needs…and these changes happen faster and faster.
More simply is being an artist the ultimate attempt to look for…ME
I wonder sometimes if the path to be honest and dedicated in the artistic profession is an illusion and a leftover of childhood guilt or may be an open wound…It seems that false knowledge, the attempt to enter into a dream world, being an intellectual poseur can bring you to the heights, the pinnacle of success…
Years go by, and I am still trying to find some answers to all this, and sometimes chance, the unbeatable law of fate gives us some answers or more exactly some elements of answers. These possible answers push us to think and to try to be generous with others, understanding our enemies and protecting the ones we love…
Is reaching a certain age the beginning of the end of the perpetual search for ME?
Unfortunately it will become an even harder task for the new generation, The ME generation is now part of the oldies and has been replaced by the me, me and …ME generation…
And not only in the artistic profession but all over the map…it seems that it’s not a preoccupation anymore but the only way to live, the only guide for a good or successful life…
Social media have dictated a way of life…Every day we must tell the world what we think, what we feel, what we want, what we don’t want, what we hope, who we like, who we hate, who is intelligent, who is not, we have to share pictures with so called friends on line, pictures of our cousins, of our dinner out, of everything ME is doing…
I rarely have a conversation with anybody that doesn’t turn very quickly to his or her feelings, his or her next action, his or her next inaction, his or her next step or decision…
Nobody or almost nobody spends time reading Goethe or Descartes anymore, looking at Picasso’s painting evolution, or even reading Shakespeare and Gogol.
NO TIME FOR THAT, what is more important is to share real feelings and thoughts like posting pictures of the last drinking party…
People study their phones all day long, and I am sure they can find the real questions and answers about the purpose of life and human adventure right there.
I don’t understand the notion of personal or intimacy anymore, some people believe that to share ideas can be too personal and disturbing, but to expose all their life on Facebook is fine.
In a few words we believe that me, me and ME deserve the attention of all…We even sometimes write a blog…
The human voice has been replaced by MY voice to the Humans…
La voix humaine…
The human Voice? Almost ironic when most real voices have been silenced around me and have been replaced by the voice of ME to Me…
Will we find a balance between the perpetual contemplation of our navel and the attention that others deserve…sometimes?
Should we try to use our voice the way we should? Sharing ideas and moments without talking about ME???? And eliminate all the harsh words we have for others, all the condemning words and keep only the ones bringing joy?
I am wandering… My thoughts dictate what I am writing… Me is dictating to I what I think…Maybe I should use my voice on others before typing words and eliminate the senseless words invading a blank page…
Voltaire wrote in Candide “Il faut cultiver notre jardin” meaning “we must tend to our garden”… Did we go too far? Are we cultivating ONLY our garden?
How is the next generation, going to react in the next few years, to this new way of living, of thinking?
Today, most of us are torn between the need to be and the reality of non-belonging to any system…Too many people, who are not respected by others, in their artistic profession or the business or political world, in every profession, are now making decisions… we don’t believe in them or trust them but they do… I know it has been the same since the world was created, and the me generation tried to fight this in the sixties…so why are we surprised to see the turmoil and chaos all over the world when we live in the me, me and ME generation?
Is this a moment in time? But how much time is left? Life goes by very fast…
The me generation was trying to convince the non-believers to fight against the usurped power and to refuse to bow in front of the fakers…
The me, me and ME generation has to find its own struggle, and to put aside for a moment the self-attention…
I am sure they will.
ME had to be the center of my thoughts, of my preoccupations, of all my efforts to reach my goal in life: to become who I am.
Two weeks ago I celebrated or more exactly some people wanted me to celebrate what they call an important birthday, a stepping stone in life for all of us who reached that age…
Yes, last week I turned seventy.
My god or my devil, SEVENTY…I cannot believe it, where did life go? Where did my dreams, my fears, my wishes, my successes, my failures go?
Are they still around me, making me, sculpting me, changing me, making me happy or destroying me?
Did I fulfill the purpose of the ME generation? Did I find myself? Did I find peace?
Do I have answers about the eternal questions of life, love, friendship, career, and relationships?
I am now seventy with all that number means…
Wiser that I were at 20 or 30, but less strong that I was at 40… Full of stories and adventures to share but less of a desire to conquer the world like I had most of my life…
Still lots of energy but using it with discernment… is that being wise or cautious? Is it being wise or full of fears?
My imagination remains the primary power, but choosing the paths of possible realization instead of throwing myself into new adventures without giving any thought to its purpose.
In short, I am boring myself…and spend a lot of time thinking about the past, about some people, about who and what and why, but not thinking of the next step or the next adventure that much anymore …
Is that BECOMING OLD? Is that a definition of getting old? Or is it another moment in time when what is happening does not coincide with my reality?
Most of us reach the different steps of life, youth, maturity and then the AGE DE RAISON, thinking that it is forever, that nothing will or can stop us, that it is a perpetual story in the making… We just have to find the next chapter…
Yes it is the perpetual search of the ME generation…looking for answers and questions about ME and to want to be an artist is probably the most obvious search for…ME
AN ARTIST?
I am wondering more and more if the definition of the artist can even be expressed…what does ARTIST mean?
All my life I would hear from everyone around me, from friends and people met on social occasions, in a supermarket or in a meeting with lawyers, from my garbage collector or the head of the public library:
He’s an artist, how can you trust him?
Or
You know, he’s an artist, so you know…what can you expect from his kind of brain?
Or
He’s an artist, so deep, so intense, so intelligent, so creative…
Or
Really? Really? An artist? How does he make a living?
Or
An artist? What does he do for a living?
What does it really mean to be an artist?
To see the world in a different way?
To bring to the world a different vision of reality?
To accept the perpetual changes and be able to adapt to them by having a different attitude every day?
Do we completely lose control of whom we are by accepting to change according to different values, different fashions, different needs…and these changes happen faster and faster.
More simply is being an artist the ultimate attempt to look for…ME
I wonder sometimes if the path to be honest and dedicated in the artistic profession is an illusion and a leftover of childhood guilt or may be an open wound…It seems that false knowledge, the attempt to enter into a dream world, being an intellectual poseur can bring you to the heights, the pinnacle of success…
Years go by, and I am still trying to find some answers to all this, and sometimes chance, the unbeatable law of fate gives us some answers or more exactly some elements of answers. These possible answers push us to think and to try to be generous with others, understanding our enemies and protecting the ones we love…
Is reaching a certain age the beginning of the end of the perpetual search for ME?
Unfortunately it will become an even harder task for the new generation, The ME generation is now part of the oldies and has been replaced by the me, me and …ME generation…
And not only in the artistic profession but all over the map…it seems that it’s not a preoccupation anymore but the only way to live, the only guide for a good or successful life…
Social media have dictated a way of life…Every day we must tell the world what we think, what we feel, what we want, what we don’t want, what we hope, who we like, who we hate, who is intelligent, who is not, we have to share pictures with so called friends on line, pictures of our cousins, of our dinner out, of everything ME is doing…
I rarely have a conversation with anybody that doesn’t turn very quickly to his or her feelings, his or her next action, his or her next inaction, his or her next step or decision…
Nobody or almost nobody spends time reading Goethe or Descartes anymore, looking at Picasso’s painting evolution, or even reading Shakespeare and Gogol.
NO TIME FOR THAT, what is more important is to share real feelings and thoughts like posting pictures of the last drinking party…
People study their phones all day long, and I am sure they can find the real questions and answers about the purpose of life and human adventure right there.
I don’t understand the notion of personal or intimacy anymore, some people believe that to share ideas can be too personal and disturbing, but to expose all their life on Facebook is fine.
In a few words we believe that me, me and ME deserve the attention of all…We even sometimes write a blog…
The human voice has been replaced by MY voice to the Humans…
La voix humaine…
The human Voice? Almost ironic when most real voices have been silenced around me and have been replaced by the voice of ME to Me…
Will we find a balance between the perpetual contemplation of our navel and the attention that others deserve…sometimes?
Should we try to use our voice the way we should? Sharing ideas and moments without talking about ME???? And eliminate all the harsh words we have for others, all the condemning words and keep only the ones bringing joy?
I am wandering… My thoughts dictate what I am writing… Me is dictating to I what I think…Maybe I should use my voice on others before typing words and eliminate the senseless words invading a blank page…
Voltaire wrote in Candide “Il faut cultiver notre jardin” meaning “we must tend to our garden”… Did we go too far? Are we cultivating ONLY our garden?
How is the next generation, going to react in the next few years, to this new way of living, of thinking?
Today, most of us are torn between the need to be and the reality of non-belonging to any system…Too many people, who are not respected by others, in their artistic profession or the business or political world, in every profession, are now making decisions… we don’t believe in them or trust them but they do… I know it has been the same since the world was created, and the me generation tried to fight this in the sixties…so why are we surprised to see the turmoil and chaos all over the world when we live in the me, me and ME generation?
Is this a moment in time? But how much time is left? Life goes by very fast…
The me generation was trying to convince the non-believers to fight against the usurped power and to refuse to bow in front of the fakers…
The me, me and ME generation has to find its own struggle, and to put aside for a moment the self-attention…
I am sure they will.
I must say that I love your blog, Bernard. I appreciate your voice amidst our world of chaos. Please, keep writing!
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