Time. Change. And a little bit of the Beat Generation.

I suppose after all this time, nothing has really changed. Yet, as I look around me, I see my 70’s Olympia type-writer, my great-grandmother’s wicker writing desk, a picture of my three year old niece and, I know everything is changing. It is happening at such a slow pace one hardly notices and, before you know it the light in the room changes then, POOF! you see things differently.

I’m staring at the exclamation point on my type-writer. It is a new feature for me. My older 40’s Smith Corona didn’t have an exclamation point. I wonder if the Beat generation is responsible for this. Somehow I can’t imagine them getting by without one…

Now

I have evolved

slowly

without much of a fuss

into

an EXCLAMATION!

of sorts.

Maybe my Smith Corona was a cheap version. Maybe, you had to pay extra for an exclamation point like paying extra for power windows in your car.

Who knows why it wasn’t there.

A few days ago, I came across an article about the up-coming 50th anniversary of On The Road by Jack Kerouac. There is a plan to publish the original scrolled version by next year for the first time. For those who don’t know, he wrote the entire book on a manual type-writer in three days. He used a roll of paper with no paragraph or page breaks thus, creating a scroll like document spanning 119 ft. long.

This book defined a generation; a country.

I must admit, I didn’t finish this particular book. I remember getting towards the end, and upon seeing how little pages there were left, decided the story couldn’t possibly end so soon and so, I just didn’t finish it. I couldn’t concieve of anything else. However, whether or not I finished it has no bearing. On The Road described a lack-luster feeling of a people. A desire of flight, of diving into the void, and all the while embracing it.

Perhaps we could all benefit from Jack Kerouac’s work. A man’s journey into himself. Pehaps, we could all benefit by “stopping to smell the roses.”

In my generation I may fret too much over the lack of change. I fear history has taught us no lessons, that we take advantage too much of the life we have.

This life! This great gift! (or curse) Has been thrust upon us!

If there was one thing I could convey to my peers, it would be this: slow down (!) Our society is so high paced, so demanding of our time, we never truly appreciate the things we have. By the time we’re old and used up with no choice but to slow down, we may finally realize what has happened, and what is happening in the world. How, individually each of our lives has importance.

I recall now, in high school (which is only seven years past) feeling such a sense of urgency in becoming something. Making a choice for my life and following that path forever. The years kept coming and a few years later at the age of twenty I remember feeling myself a failure because I had chosen no path. I thought honestly it was too late. I had already wasted too much time. Now, at the tender age of twenty-four, I am finally satisfied. Time is an Illusion! I can finally enjoy my life. I have not chosen a “path” however, I make choices every day, which I accept, whole-heartedly.