My own personal Howl

I saw the minds of my generation become strangers who have warped the world I know into something I can’t recognize, let alone keep up with.

Who live off of preserved fats and cell phones, French fries in one hand, texting in another, and yet still driving, uncaring of the consequences it might bring to them and others; pack on the pounds and in turn popping diet pills, then complaining about never being able to live healthy.

 Who will never know how it feels to conquer a treadmill, how your legs feel after a 10k run, who expect everything for the nothing that they give.

Who inflict pain on their own families and believe fidelity is something of the past, turning their loved ones into cynics and degrading the concept of marriage, which once used to hold this country together and now defines us as liars and cheats.

Who give pregnant teenage girls television shows that entertain us during dinner, every family member in a separate room with eyes glued to the TV, watching the spectacles of society without realizing what they have all around them, just focused on what we now call “prime entertainment.”

Who have been taught that it is acceptable to disrespect one’s own mother and father, or elders in general, who know everything yet know nothing, see a good spanking as abuse and will never know the feeling of a day of hard work.

 And their parents who buy them cell phones, laptops and I-everythings, in turn everyone loses the experience of playing out in the summer sun all day long, coming in with black bare feet and sun tanned skin.

I saw the minds of my generation become drones who have lost all beauty, who believe beauty to be something we must create.

Who bully others for their own internal problems, either physical, or perhaps worse, verbally, slowly killing an innocent bystander.

Who go under the knife for wrinkles, which once used to show wisdom but now show weakness, forking away every last penny and ripping it from the hands of those who could truly use it, just to reach the standards of those who tell them that beauty is not within.

And know that looking good in a t-shirt and jeans is not enough, spending hours every day primping and prepping to only be judged by every passerby every second, yet get up and smear on more make-up the next day.

Who have lost sight truly, given more importance to social pressures and cultural stigmas than to an education and self-strength, more worried about if they fit in than if their mind and heart is in the right place.

Who love no one but themselves, the Snookie’s and J-Woww’s of the world who somehow become models for every girl I know, who have put real women, real heroes away somehow, and the Bieber’s that make them believe this is right, that we must strive to be these people who exploit themselves for money.

I saw the minds of my generation become weak, under the thumb of everyone else’s opinions, which then are the opinions of others, and yet others more.

Who can no longer think for themselves, no longer know what it means to be unique, long to please others rather than to build upon their own soul, those people that just go with the flow instead of challenging the current.

Who are so far in debt that they cannot even afford to buy books for school, because they have already paid three grand and above just to walk in the door, who have to work two jobs and pay bills and still bring home the straight A’s for momma.

Who live their lives through technology and forget about what it means to have a conversation, to be able to bring something to the table, to listen and respond and communicate, because all the while they are updating their status or texting someone who they don’t have the gall to talk to in person.

I saw my generation use time as an excuse, when we are given so much of it, squander opportunities and accept being mediocre.

Who live off welfare while a father somewhere is working eighty plus hours a week to put food on the table and simultaneously feed someone miles away who lives off of his income, watching programs all day and packing on the pounds, living in a luxury that some will never know.

Who complain about every politician from the comfort of their couch, all of the sudden we are all educated in the most controversial of all practices, striking down those who at least have the guts to try, when from the very beginning they are wrong in all that they do.

Who punish those who rise from the pack, crushing them with loans and impossible expectancies, forcing them to work to the bone and still keep them from touching their dreams, rejecting them from med school for only getting a 3.9 GPA in the midst of a full course schedule, mom’s cancer and three kids, rejecting them from retirement and social security after sixty years of hard labor, rejecting them from publishing their life’s work after years of endless nights, endless work and endless debt.

Who no longer strive to be doctors, lawyers and the like, no longer strive for greatness at all, instead searching for the formula that does not exist: minimal work for maximum reward.