No black socks with shorts

Seeing my parents' generation go kicking and screaming into advanced age is a double-edged sword. It's at once oddly disconcerting while at the same time it is incredibly uplifting. It's strange to see, perhaps, the generation of the 20th century becoming mild, pudgy, balding consumers who are trying desperately to relive their youth or who are very accepting of the aging process. Ah, the contradictions!

Like many youth of my generation (the children of you boomers), I have held the children of the '60s in very high regard. You brought about such wondrous and desperately needed change to the world. Not to mention the musical heritage you've bestowed upon us (a heritage that we've a hard time eclipsing).

In answer to your question about being young and in a relationship in the early 21st century: the lasting effect of Free Love is felt by youth today, despite AIDS and other frightening diseases that penicillin can no longer cure. Sex is frightening in many ways, and so is love, but in some ways not.

For example, some of the relationships that we have today and take for granted would likely never have been if not for you boomers. I am a white female, aged 23. Do you think in 1952 that I could have easily had a black lover? Or openly gay friends? Or a romantic interest who is 20 years older (well, prejudice against age is still rampant, but I'm sure you guys could fix that too if you wanted!)?

We get a bit annoyed at you all when we see boomer entertainers like the Rolling Stones charge completely outrageous prices for their shows. And we wonder (more than you may think we do) where things went wrong. I hear Jethro Tull songs being used to sell cars and realize where some of the priorities and worldliness of your generation have been redirected. Have you simply given up or have you just gotten tired? In this regard, it's secretly refreshing to see the arrogant youth of yesteryear becoming AARP candidates.

Don't get me wrong -- it's a bit tough for us to see such powerful figures of the ultimate youth culture becoming potentially doddering grannies and grandpappies. The fact that many of you will not consciously succumb to the stereotype of an "old" person gives us hope and positive reinforcement about our own impending advanced age. You've not yet seen a reason to wear black socks with shorts, thank God.

This is why it's also so totally fantastic to see someone like my mother (at nearly 50) wear sexier clothes than I do. She doesn't feel old. And it's also so refreshing to see a group of guys like the Who bring Madison Square Garden to their feet with energetic renditions of music written 30 years ago (more contradictions, I know! Isn't that grand?) Such music is timeless, just as your generation is as well.

It's humbling and healthy to see your heroes and contemporaries fall and grow old. It's at the same time remarkable to see people refuse to feel "old" and who think that age is truly, merely, only a number. You boomers have shown us that love and life cannot be confined by age. At least, not without kicking and screaming.

Off to see the Who,

-- Jennifer Carney

Oral sex

You are our parents. You are the only vision of grown-ups we have ever really seen. We fully believe in your adulthood, but we are not terribly impressed with it.

I know that is a universal sign of youth, to be flippantly disrespectful of one's elders. You may be more interesting than your parents, but you seem less noble to us. You are hoping to save Social Security so that you have it when you retire, but none of us ever expect we'll see that money when we get old. AIDS exploded because you all slept with everybody. And most of you can't even use the Internet.

You all got to have sex like no other people in history. For one brief moment, sex had no consequences. People my age don't complain about condoms being like taking a shower with a raincoat on. We're used to it, the way you get used to wearing flip-flops in the shower at the gym so you don't get athlete's foot.

My 31-year-old sister thinks that oral sex is more intimate than vaginal sex; I'm 24 and none of my friends think that. I think that, because of AIDS, people my age wait longer to have sex with someone. But we are young and frisky and there needs to be a trade-off. That trade-off is oral sex. It's become much more casual than it used to be, a fairly normal first-date sort of activity.

-- Julia Frey

The Age of Disillusionment

I happen to be quite young. Eighteen years, to tell the truth. And you want to know what it's like to be young? Damn frustrating, that's what it's like. You'll probably find it hard to understand, but there are just no causes left.

Your generation had Vietnam, the peace movement, flower power, Watergate and environmentalism. We have -- what? Sure, there's anti-globalism, opposition to the coming war against Iraq, a few other scattered things. And there would be some other, maybe less glamorous causes if somebody would care to take them up. But tell me, when was the last time you heard about a student protest on a campus? Nobody cares, that's the problem. The Age of Irony, indeed. We're so goddamn ironic, cynical and jaded that we don't think any cause is worth fighting for. The Me Decade is supposed to be over, but I sure don't see a sign of it.

We look at the adults who have remained politically active and we laugh because they're so naive. We look at those who have gotten rid of their ideals to become CEOs and we make them our role models. Yes, it's a bleak picture. Young people are supposed to be idealistic, full of vigor and enthusiasm. Yet somewhere along the way, the idealism got lost. I notice it, even in my friends. They're good people, otherwise I wouldn't call them my friends, and they're certainly not self-centered. Yet few of them take an interest in politics, in how our country (Luxembourg, by the way, not the USA) is governed, in what's happening in Afghanistan or Iraq. They're not interested in high causes; they might even find them slightly amusing. I propose we rename it the Age of Disillusionment.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, and I hope you'll get a few e-mails that are more positive than mine, as well.

-- Frank Dondelinger

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