READING LESSON: WHO? WHAT? WHERE?

A reading lesson is more than the title for a blog post, more than a list of books, but it’s not more than you need.

If you didn’t know, now you know.

I need a lesson, you need a lesson, we all need a lesson.

After a writing lesson, I’m here to help.

All ready? Let’s go. I’ll set the mood:

Remember the first time you were in love and knew it because you’d never felt the way you were feeling about someone?

It had to be love. What else could it be?

Your object of love shines when you’re around, revealing more of the world than you could ever imagine.

Their smile, their eyes, their style, it all mixed like a kaleidoscope of pure happiness.

At the same time things looked darker when they were away.

You’re not afraid of the dark, or maybe you are, but you liked the vision you have with them in your life.

The light of your life showed you a better way to be, and you became a better you.

Together you were perfect.

 

 

Suddenly it was over.

They found someone else, or you found someone else.

One of you moved away.

After some event, the wrong words, the wrong act, time changed.

Now you had the time spent with them to spend doing something else, anything else to keep from thinking about them.

It’s different for the one who moved on than it is for the one left behind.

 

The point is deciding which character resonates with you, the one anticipating new and exciting times, or the one full of regret for losing the most exciting person they’ll ever know if they live to be one hundred.

The BoomerPdx Reading Lesson says you need to pick one when you open a book.

They’ll both be there so choose carefully.

 

Take The Great Gatsby For Example

Here is a story of envy and lust among the rich and well-heeled.

 

In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.

“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one,” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”

 

Those opening lines come from the young normal guy living next to the mysterious young rich guy.

One has a job, the other has connections, ‘gonnections.’

We are normal Nick, and admire Jay like he does.

As things turn out, Jay is not worthy.

We don’t like Jay as much, but Nick is depressing.

Instead of a future of expensive thrills and chills, he’s resigned to living this:

“And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

The reading lesson interpretation is Nick packed it in, went back to where he came from, and lived a dull life of predictable normality.

After getting rizzed up being around the sex, booze, and party life of the rich and careless, Nick will be stuck in endless boredom.

 

 

Like it’s a bad thing.

 

Who are these people?

We see them every day. Maybe they are us?

What are they doing? Chasing illusions, dreams, a future with them in it?

Where are they?

In a time where rich guys could flaunt their wealth to each other, and an outsider like Nick Carroway gives us a glimpse.

 

Take A Good Look Around 

WWI ended, the Roaring Twenties gave way to the Great Depression.

WWII ended, the Fifties adjusted and gave way to the Sixties which are popularized in song and dance as a revolution.

Vietnam ended and the frugal Seventies gave way to the booming Eighties and beyond.

Now it’s 2025 and time for a little reflection.

 

 

Reading The Great Gatsby again before seeing the Leo version on the big screen highlighted the Gatsby PTSD.

From his WWI days to Great Gatsby days there’s a trend from TBI, concussion, to PTSD.

No one called it PTSD in WWI. More like ‘shell shock.’

You only get blown apart once, but you live with the effects of being blown up.

Gatsby PTSD felt like the end result of a man who could have everything, but only wanted what he couldn’t have.

Baby boomers, Portland baby boomers and their following, know what it’s like to have everything, or what feels like everything, only to lose it all.

Maybe it’s an age thing, but the more I read about boomers ruining things for everyone else, the more I feel younger generations are letting that feeling of having everything slip away.

It’s a feeling worth embracing at least once. Try wrapping your arm around Muhammad Ali, Ben Affleck Batman, Gatsby PTSD and see what you come up with.

I see a story told from a distance about a striving soul searching for a meaningful outlet, one who fights for others on the same search.

 

PS: That’s all.

 

PSS: How’d you like the reading lesson?