#GenX is trending and that’s obnoxious

We didn’t invent slacking but #GenX might be able to claim some of those engineers who built the infrastructure that enables us all to #WFH.

We didn’t ask to be latchkey kids, but our parents were working and we were trusted. That’s right, trusted, to fend for ourselves. And we did.

So now, in the shelter-in-place, voluntary quarantine, please-just-go-home-so-we-don’t-end-up-under-martial-law environment, we may be handling it better than the two bigger generations that typically squeeze us out.

It’s not a competition. Seriously. No one wants to be the best at staying home.

But it does say something about the coping skills we #GenX’ers have developed that we’re not so busy whining on social media or ignoring the government’s warnings to realize this moment – this crisis – is as much opportunity as it is inevitability.

Let’s start with the second one there “inevitability.” Because, yes, Stuart Stevens, Republicans like you built this moment. Denying science, distancing ourselves from the rest of the world, and gutting the government indiscriminately all have consequences. So, was a crisis like this one inevitable? Yes.

We don’t have leadership. We have politicians.

After Sunday’s Meet the Press when Doris Kearns Goodwin reminded us that it was the vision of life after the Depression that FDR contributed – his leadership – I anxiously waited for someone to step forward and offer the vision. What will it look like when this is over?

Instead what we’ve gotten is self-aggrandizing, desperation, blame, and a total failure of leadership at the highest possible levels. While Stevens refers to the Republicans as being “the stupid party” I gotta say I think all of the idiots at the helm are outmatched by this pandemic. Most of them don’t even know how government actually works or what they’re even capable of.

Except maybe Dr. Fauci. But he’s become known as a truth teller and we all know how much politicians hate those assholes.

Then they turned the reigns over from CDC to FEMA and well, thank Katrina we have another government agency in place to fix this shit.

Okay, so beyond inevitability is opportunity.

What’s that all about? No, not grandparents selflessly willing to contract a preventable disease so their moron college grandchildren can get their party-on. (Facepalm, Baby Boomers, just #STFU.) What about the possibility that the “new normal” could provide real data to support real change.

What if more Americans worked from home – spent more time with pets and children? Would they be happier? More productive? We’re about to find out.

What if public schools offered distance learning for students frustrated by the classroom environment? Would they excel? Learn more? Finish school faster? We’re about to find out.

What if the needs of a community were met by the businesses, leaders, and citizens of that community? Would the locals make choices that protected them? Would they help one another? We’re about to find out.

What if we’ve become so dependent on the federal government for funding, services, and direction that the only way we can function is for someone in Washington to tell us what to do? So dependent that we don’t even care who in Washington tells us.

What if we fear self-governance so much that we’ve abdicated our rights and our decision-making authority to bureaucrats and electable celebrities? Will we be paralyzed? Ruined? Broken beyond repair? We’re about to find out.

Because here’s the only thing we know for sure: Time heals all wounds. With time we gain perspective. We gain clarity. We gain experience.

And right now, stuck at home, we have nothing but time.

So let’s start using it wisely. Let’s be reading, watching, thinking, and discussing. Let’s talk about what if? And what happens after? Let’s reimagine what the world could be if it wasn’t this shit storm.

And let’s get to work building the things we’ll need – infrastructure – to emerge stronger on the other side.

How are you coping? leave a comment and let’s talk this out.