Googling To The Oldies

I'm a child of the 80's. I admit it with pride. Lots of people love to mock the 80's, but they tend to be the people that admire the 70's, so what do they know. About the only reason I can get out of them for their denigration is that people in the 80's dressed... well... different.

And...your point is...?

So I throw this before the jury as evidence to either acquit or convict the 80's of being "uncool." It's a video for A-Ha's "Take On Me." It's a very strong specimen of the era, and I'm not ashamed to say I like it. (Okay, I will admit that the girl is cuter animated. Her hair and makeup are less extreme.)

As a side-note, I have to admit I probably missed some of the more iconic parts of mainstream 80's culture. We did not have cable, so I didn't grow up with MTV or VH-1. I knew who most of the groups were, though. And back then I could hit all the notes in Take On Me. Sans falsetto.

Do I miss it? No. High school was much like every other period of my life: better in retrospect. I didn't appreciate it when I was living it. I've never been one to keep my mind, to quote Yoda, "on where he was! What he was doing!" Back then I was eager to grow up, so convinced that it would be so cool to have an adult life.

Well, I was right. As tough as it gets some times, I still prefer what I've got now to what I had then. It's just easier to see now that what I had then wasn't so bad either. To quote the ornery guy with the newspaper in "It's A Wonderful Life," "Oh, youth is wasted on the wrong people!"

But I guess that's one of the hallmarks of the age. I'll probably try and convince my kids to slow down and enjoy life, and they'll look at me like I'm nuts and remain anxious to grow up. They probably won't realize that they hold lightening in their hands. They won't understand that they have more freedom at that moment than they'll likely see again. They won't grasp that it's both a blessing and curse--and which part is which.

To be young and foolish and free... or to be old and foolish and free. Chances are we never really have a choice. I'll probably be looking back in another twenty years and thinking the same things about now.

Funny thing, life. We'll probably never really understand it until we run out of it.