The View From Close to the Source

Living in your hometown is like listening to a cassette tape that has been rerecorded. Memories blend with reality as 1988's Ton Lōc seeped into 1989's Aerosmith.

A few weeks ago, I went back to my old high school with my friend Ryan Ranalli. An English teacher was looking for a writer of combat stories to speak to her class, but was willing to settle for a combat vet (Ryan) and a writer (me). Ryan and I walked through the packed halls unable to decide whether it felt like we'd only been there last week or a hundred years ago.

The high school students' styles had shifted back  and the kids looked almost the same as we did in the 1990s. The world had moved forward, but it was impossible not to see the almost eerie similarities between these students and the people that we'd graduated with almost twenty years ago. Like when they replace actors for a character in a movie.

Their dreams were a little different, but not that much. Their talents were a little different, but again not by much. The world had turned, but not truly changed. I remembered the character Tyler Durden's words in Fight Club, "You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake."

It's humbling to look back on the assembly line you came off of, but it's also freeing. The world has so many problems, more than our generation or any of the ones before us could solve. The closer that we are to those problems, the more daunting they seem. The pace of progress being that of a glacier instead of a hawk.

In the face of a sea of tasks, it's nice to see the hands that will pick up the burdens that we are unable to move. Coming up with different and better solutions to the challenge that we all face.

It's easier to keep up the fight knowing that replacements are not far behind.