ACCEPTABLE LOSSES? WHO DECIDES FOR BOOMERS

Acceptable losses are like minor surgery.

There’s no such things as minor surgery, just minor surgeons.

Or, it’s minor surgery if it’s someone else going under the knife.

Losses are the same.

The closer you are, the less acceptable the loss.

Boomers at the upper age limits know all about loss.

If you were born in the first year of baby boomers, 1946, you’ve lost plenty.

You know what it feels like, what it looks like. Go ahead and tell us what acceptable losses you’re good with.

The older we get, and I’m a middle boomer, the more we feel the weight of life.

And death.

We’ve lost grandparents, parents, pets, siblings, and I’ll stop there. Some losses are too much.

And yet we go on, like the last line in The Great Gatsby, we go on, “boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

That Special Place

We all have a place we like for reasons beyond comprehension; an era we feel connection with.

‘If only we were born then things would all be different.’

That’s the aging myth. You’ve heard this said in different ways: “If I’d been born in the Middle Ages I would have been a king.”

It goes along with, “If I had joined the service I’d have been the General of The Armies, the Admiral of The Seas, and the Ace of The Skies.”

Dreams are magical, but like Bruuuuuce says, “You got to trade in those wings for some wheels.”

Turning dreams into reality is work, and along the way changes happen, some planned, some not.

The top image shows light in the darkness, a special place caught just right. It may not look so special, but it is for the moment the picture was taken.

People see special places all the time and walk past without a thought.

“Isn’t that nice,” they say before the next thing catches their attention.

“That’s nice, too.”

And they’re right. It’s nice then, it’s nice now. No big thing, no knockout production, no audience to share with, just something that feels special to you.

Losing the small things is acceptable, because they’re only lost to you, and who are you after all?

If you were more important you could do something about those acceptable losses.

This is when you ask yourself, ‘If I’m not important enough to help save things, are they really that important? To whom?’

Answering The Hard Question Of Acceptable Losses

Old people, like boomers in their late sixties and seventies, rely on younger generations, or at least younger boomers, to do the right thing.

If you like flowers, but flowers are not available where you live? And cost too much from someplace else?

Where will you find your flowers?

You like ice cream, but one day there’s no ice cream.

Maybe flowers and ice cream are acceptable losses, but not to you.

Here’s a game changer: One day there is no beer. No beer in the stores, no beer in the tavern, and worst of all, no beer in your fridge.

Things just got serious. Is that what you’re thinking? Me too.

The people who take flowers and ice cream and beer lightly will explain how easy it is to live without.

To them it no big deal, and they’re right. No. Big. Deal. Except to you.

They say, “Think of the money you’ll save without frivolous purchases.”

Now you’re frivolous?

It’s your money and you’ll spend it how you want. Isn’t that the deal? Instead or being forced to do without the necessities, you want to know what happened.

What Happened To Portland Baby Boomers

One boomer lived in Northwest Portland until they got married and moved to inner Southeast.

From there they moved to the southern suburb of Tigard after passing on Multnomah and Metzger.

Tigard hit the sweet spot of neighborhood, school, and housing affordability.

That’s where they met more than a few people who avoided Portland and the city dirt.

And this was in the 1990’s.

The family took trips downtown on the weekends to walk around Saturday Market and Tom McCall Park.

Somehow the people napping on the park grass found tents and parkas and free food to cover the essentials of clothing, shelter, and nourishment.

And Portland learned how to deal with homelessness, which prompted many to stay in the vicinity of their own homes.

Portland went from a nice little city for rich hippies to retire in and send their kids to Reed, to Little Beruit, to today.

All of the warmth of welcoming people to Portland and showing the city off turned to wariness and riots and protests that drew people from outside the community to show the rookies how to really mix it up with the police.

The famous elk statue took a hit, Teddy Roosevelt and Abe Lincoln statues in the South Park Blocks took a hit.

People broke into the Oregon Historical Society and removed artifacts.

Nothing that dies from vandalism, ignorance, and violence are acceptable losses.

Find a place that makes you feel like I do about the light in the darkness of the top pic and share it.

It is small, insignificant to others, but the focal point of the shot. Find a special place that is perfection to you and only you.

That’s a good start?