Variations on a theme

Hey, like my new, not-remotely-pretentious blog format, guys?

I sometimes laugh that I even have a blog. Almost every day's the same: I get up, go to work, do my boring job all day, trudge home, and spend the evening dwelling on all the things I'm too tired to actually do, but which might actually get out of my current situation if I had enough energy to do them. Sometimes I feel guilty about how little I like the situation I'm in since, after all, I have a job that adequately pays the rent, and a good boss.

I read this article today about the Millenial generation and felt perfectly pinned, except that the "lazy" Millenials she's describing in her office seem a lot less lazy and more motivated than I am. One thing that routinely bugs me, however, about critiques of the Millenial generation is how the writers of these articles so completely remove themselves from the situation. It's not as though the Millenial generation raised itself, or aliens dumped us here fully formed. Yes, each individual needs to take responsibility for who he or she becomes, but no one ever stops to ask if we could have been born into the era of yuppie greed, a booming growth of electronic entertainment, increased celebrity worship, "every child is special, can become president, can do what they want with their lives," and a decreased emphasis on having your kid pull his or her weight around the house, and be expected to turn out any differently.

My mom once described to me something called Maslow's Hierarchy, which describes the order in which people worry about their quality of life. Physiological needs come first (food, water, excretion, sex, etc), then safety (of self, family, resources), love/belonging, esteem (by self and others), then self-actualization. Once one level has been achieved, we worry about the next, but not until then (basically). Another criticism I've heard of the Millenial generation is that we move on from job to job too frequently -- always looking for a more fulfilling experience. Seen in context of Maslow's hierarchy, this only makes sense. A couple of generations ago, the primary need our culture emphasized was providing for the family. People dreamed of owning a house with the proverbial picket fence. After that was achieved and taken for granted, later generations worried more about financial security. Now we, who've been raised in perhaps the best economic climate in history, are all pursuing self-actualizing careers. Art teacher. Professor. Screen-writer. Novelist. Harsher critics might say we're actually pursuing more entertaining careers, and they may be right. How much can we really be blamed? Doesn't this seem like a natural progression, especially when many of us were raised with the attitude that settling for anything different in a job would be either materialistic or selling ourselves short?

What's scary is that the culmination of this trend is coinciding with the globalization of the job market and a population that's growing exponentially. So, yes, there's a good chance we'll have to settle for something less than exactly what we want to do with our careers. Maybe in 30 years we'll be worried about eating at all, but I hope not. Still, is it all that unreasonable to want to be happy? Even if our ideas about what would make us happy are a little inflated, or if we expect it to happen too readily? To not want to spend most of our waking lives being bored or miserable? Maybe this is our generation's burden to bear: being set up with unrealistic expectations, then having to face not only reality, but a grimmer reality than anyone saw coming. Yet, knowing all this, it's still hard to not want to shoot for a career that will make me happy.

On a lighter note ("Thank God," screams everyone), super-congratulations to the guy I mentioned earlier, Chris LaPorte, who just won ArtPrize! There's one self-actualized artist who won't have to worry about going hungry for a while.

"I have lived through much, and now I think I have found what is needed for happiness. A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbor - such is my idea of happiness. And then, on top of all that, a mate, and children, perhaps - what more can the heart of man desire?"
- Tolstoy's "Family Happiness"