THE BORING GENERATION<\/p>\n
\n
Virtually everything people believe in
\ncan be exposed as possessing laughable inconsistencies.
\nAnd so they laugh. And stand still
\nScott Turow<\/p>\n
It seems that people born after 1980 don\u2019t like to party. Radio 4 has labeled them \u201cGeneration Right\u201d because they are not interested in bar-hopping, binge-drinking and cocaine.\u00a0\u00a0 Instead, they prefer to stay at home and knit. I can hardly blame them.<\/p>\n
I am from the Silent Generation. We endured The Depression, World War II, Korea, the atom bomb, the Cold War and held tight to our own values and comfortable life styles.\u00a0 Generation Y has observed the things we thought were holy and asked, \u201dReally?\u00a0 Is marriage that great?\u00a0 Do we need to believe in God?\u00a0 Is your work your whole life? Is it all about sex? What is really important?\u201d<\/p>\n
I think that is a very good thing.\u00a0 The truth is that the outside world puzzled me, too. \u00a0It was knitting that gave me perspective. A ball of yarn and two needles was all it took to lower my blood pressure and absorb me in something besides what everyone thought of me and what we were having for dinner.<\/p>\n
I was ten years old.<\/p>\n
My Aunt Hazel and my mother were arguing about me.\u00a0 \u201cShe sits in the closet reading a book a day,\u201d said my mother.\u00a0 \u201cHer room is a mess and I cannot get her to set the table.\u201d<\/p>\n
My aunt who adored me because when she fed me dinner she never had leftovers, rushed to my defense.\u00a0 \u201cShe needs a hobby,\u201d she told my mother.<\/p>\n
She opened the closet door and closed my book.\u00a0 \u201cYou have a disgusting pallor from sitting in here all day reading about other people\u2019s lives.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0I am going to teach you how to live your own.\u00a0 I am going to teach you to knit.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat does that have to do with life?\u201d I asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything,\u201d said Aunt Hazel and took me to the yarn shop. My first project was a green scarf. Endless scarves, mittens, hats, argyle socks, suits, skirts, dresses and coats followed as the world bucked and bolted, climates changed, morals were destroyed, the definition of male and female blurred, test tubes created babies and modified vegetables, single was not a death sentence and marriage was not forever. I believe it was the click of the needles and the transformation of yarn into garments that kept me sane through all that chaos.<\/p>\n
Generations that followed turned to medication to help them cope, but Generation Y got smart. It has seen the world fight for women\u2019s rights, gay rights, diversity, environmental preservation, and abolition of war and thought \u201dWhat a waste of energy!\u201d<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why it stays home and knits.\u00a0 Just like me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE BORING GENERATION Virtually everything people believe in can be exposed as possessing laughable inconsistencies. And so they laugh. And stand still Scott Turow It seems that people born after…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[837],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15475","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-joe-cillo"},"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":true,"span_bottom":"