Monday, November 14, 2016

The Buzz Aldrin Syndrome

"And if you’ve done it right, you’ll be two decades ahead of your Gen X peers since you avoided worthless degrees and leap-frogged your philosophical understanding of life. You will be accomplished, you will be successful, you will have paid a fraction of the mental toll to get there, and you will indeed be an amazing man, the world’s most interesting perhaps. You have reached the so called “finish line” much earlier and faster than Buzz Aldrin…

and that’s when your real problems start."


From my latest piece at Return of Kings.

5 comments:

Borepatch said...

"Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory."

- John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur and his Noble Knights

Tucanae Services said...

I learned reasonably early in life that one must cultivate a Plan 'B'. Now that can be a hobby, a side business, travel, etc. Just don't punch your last time clock, collect the gold watch, plop down and say 'This is it.' You do, you will be dead in 5 years. The mind can work in way to destroy the physical without really knowing it.

Post Alley Crackpot said...

I think the best way of thinking of the "getting to the finish line early" bit is that you've just been given another life in the great game of life ...

"OOOH ... PLUS ONE LIFE POWER-UP, AWESOME!" :-)

There were other explorers Buzz Aldrin could have reached out to that would have understood.

I doubt that Tristan Jones would have ran him off, and having "a Moon-Sea exploration mission" of sorts where they'd both single-hand sailboats around the world would have been something for posterity to remember.

Just because you think that one life you had is over doesn't mean that you can't live a newer and even more incredible one.

But the problem with a highly visible public persona is expectations, yours and everyone else's, especially in America.

Mick Jagger said it best: "They only want you to be the one thing."

I get this enough in America.

"Where are you from?"

"Lots of places, many far away from here."

"But ... where were you born?"

Even with this kind of mundane bullshit, they just want the one thing.

Fuck 'em -- life isn't always simple enough for the people in the cheap seats to understand it.

Anonymous said...

Hollywood writer and director Paul Schrader has called for violence following Donald Trump’s election as president.

http://www.breitbart.com/tech/2016/11/14/writer-of-taxi-driver-raging-bull-pens-post-election-call-to-violence/


Regards,

James

Swede said...

Great article. While it's always a good thing to keep striving, my belief is that whether we know it or not, what we are searching for is God. We will never be truly happy or satisfied until we find him. And it's not going to be on this side of the grave.