Since my Scotland trip, I've been think a lot about the difference of a young person growing up in the Old World versus the New. I'm thinking, if I lived in a country with hundreds of years of history, then maybe it is enough just to be. Just exist, and live your life in your community, knowing that you are doing your part, but no need to seek for the ever elusive (North) American Dream. I think belong to a young country gives us illusions of grandeur, that we will become the next important person, change society, mark the world. But in a country were football rivalries are rooted in religious conflicts hundreds of years ago, where Roman walls of a 1000 years still stands, maybe you accept that it's not all about you and what you create in your short, short lives. The education system here supports that too, I think. They specialize very early (high school), and concentrate on only that area of their study. I know that doesn't mean they don't know anything outside their field, but I've taken courses in mathematics, astronomy, economics, philosophy, political science, history, biology, physics, chemistry at university, and I just can't imagine deciding at 15 or whatever what my career or my life was going to be about. But carving a niche early is nice too - it gives you certainty, perhaps, in those tumultous year of finding yourself.
I am still trying to do that.
1 comment:
Saw Billy Joel last night, phenom concert and he ended aptly with The Piano Man, which, like most songs has a line that just jumps out and hooks you, and again seeming the pesimist, but it seems to ring out in my life lately "...they're sharing a drink they call loneliness, but it's better than drinking alone..." hopefully something can give you some inspiration but until then cheers.
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