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Maintaining
May. 4th, 2025 11:23 amGrey day. Rain is predicted all week.
###
BB, Flavia, & I showed up yesterday at the mall where the Middletown demo was supposed to take place, only to discover it was one of those curbside protests where you stand valiantly at the side of the road, breathing in automobile exhaust for a couple of hours while drivers (mostly) ignore you.
As one, our eyes met: No-oo-ooo, thank you!
Not a total loss: We scurried off to Tranquili-Tea for an hour and enjoyed home-churned ice cream & thunderstorms on the drive home.
###
On the phone with Ichabod, I had a revelation.
Ichabod was saying something about always wanting to be his authentic self, & I was thinking, What a drag that would be—when it occurred to me that that might be because I spent so much time when I was slightly younger than Ichabod is now maintaining.
Maintaining was something you did when you were high on drugs & didn't want anyone else to know. But sometimes you maintained when you were feeling social anxiety or stage fright, or just had to be somewhere you did not want to be. You did not reveal (let alone exhibit) your inner quailings. There was a fair amount of honor involved in maintaining.
Of course, I don't know all that many Millennials except for my kids & their friends. And I know no Gen Z-ers.
But I do watch a lot of television with Millennial & GenZ characters, and if the representations are correct, they never maintain! Millennials & GenZ are constantly talking about how nervous they are or how incapable of functioning because of some incapacitating internal state. They have absolutely no concept of fortitude. Oversharing is their idea of virtue.
It's a manifestation of privilege when you think about it—(a) their belief that other people really care about what they feel and (b) that the world is a safe enough place that what you feel won't get you into trouble.
Maybe that's the true rift between Boomers & Millennials: We maintain; they don't.
###
Other than that, I tromped and read more Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Gotta say—Tess's passion for Angel Clare is rather annoying. Angel Clare has a big stick up his ass.
Alec Stoke-d'Urberville seems like he would be a lot more fun.
###
BB, Flavia, & I showed up yesterday at the mall where the Middletown demo was supposed to take place, only to discover it was one of those curbside protests where you stand valiantly at the side of the road, breathing in automobile exhaust for a couple of hours while drivers (mostly) ignore you.
As one, our eyes met: No-oo-ooo, thank you!
Not a total loss: We scurried off to Tranquili-Tea for an hour and enjoyed home-churned ice cream & thunderstorms on the drive home.
###
On the phone with Ichabod, I had a revelation.
Ichabod was saying something about always wanting to be his authentic self, & I was thinking, What a drag that would be—when it occurred to me that that might be because I spent so much time when I was slightly younger than Ichabod is now maintaining.
Maintaining was something you did when you were high on drugs & didn't want anyone else to know. But sometimes you maintained when you were feeling social anxiety or stage fright, or just had to be somewhere you did not want to be. You did not reveal (let alone exhibit) your inner quailings. There was a fair amount of honor involved in maintaining.
Of course, I don't know all that many Millennials except for my kids & their friends. And I know no Gen Z-ers.
But I do watch a lot of television with Millennial & GenZ characters, and if the representations are correct, they never maintain! Millennials & GenZ are constantly talking about how nervous they are or how incapable of functioning because of some incapacitating internal state. They have absolutely no concept of fortitude. Oversharing is their idea of virtue.
It's a manifestation of privilege when you think about it—(a) their belief that other people really care about what they feel and (b) that the world is a safe enough place that what you feel won't get you into trouble.
Maybe that's the true rift between Boomers & Millennials: We maintain; they don't.
###
Other than that, I tromped and read more Tess of the d'Urbervilles.
Gotta say—Tess's passion for Angel Clare is rather annoying. Angel Clare has a big stick up his ass.
Alec Stoke-d'Urberville seems like he would be a lot more fun.
