Merry Go Rounds

an·ar·chy

ˈanərkē/ - (noun) 

                a state of disorder due to absence or nonrecognition of authority.

                "he must ensure public order in a country threatened with anarchy"

               synonyms: lawlessness, nihilism, mobocracy, revolution, insurrection, disorder,chaos, mayhem, tumult, turmoil

I have been waiting to weigh in on the current global events, specifically the Paris Massacre and the ISIS situation, until I have had time to better educate myself. Unfortunately, aside from watching CNN as much as possible last saturday, I haven't been able to find credible information in the few spare minutes that I can find to look into the events.

I don't know whether or not to fear for our country and our people or be proud of them. Social Media has me more confused than ever! So many opinions, many of which are uneducated.

So..... What I do want to elaborate on is my personal view point on life experiences as a Millenial....

First... I had no idea I was a "Millenial" until just recently. Apparently anyone born between 1980 and the early 2000's is a Millenial. Congrats to us!... I guess. I am going out on a limb here and assuming that we are Millenials because our "coming of age" occurred during the new millenium and that will be our earliest vivid memories. 

My earliest vivid memory is breaking my femur at age 3 in 1992 but what ever!

Well, as a Millenial, I can say I experience life as though I'm spinning on a Merry-Go-Round.

It all started when I was very young. When you first get on that merry-go-round (MGR from here on out people!), you are trying to find your balance, trying to find your footing. The MGR isn't spinning too fast just yet, but until you get it kind of figured out you're pretty wabbly. 

As we grow up we get "pushed" on our MGR by different people. They include parents, siblings, teachers, mentors, friends, etc. and each one pushes you a different way. Like you parents, especially mothers, are more gentle with their pushes. They slowly spin your cute bottom around on that MGR to make sure that you are safe, comfortable, and loved. Each little push is deliberate, full of tenderness. We are also pushed by our siblings. Their pushes can be a little more rough. Both literally and figuratively, my sister was always a rough and tumble type pusher. She physically would try to spin my butt right off one of those darn merry-go-rounds when we were kid.... but even in the figurative sense, my sister pushed my buttons (and I pushed hers right back!). But one thing to keep in mind when it comes to siblings is that, while they will push you around in that circle harder than your parents would like, they would never let you fall off. It may feel like you are flying off the edge at any moment, but right as ejection is imminent they slow that MGR down and let you get yourself back together. Teachers/mentors and friends are sort of in the middle between the two. They are there to challenge you more than your parents, but don'e push you to the brink like your siblings. 

All of these people and their interactioins with you are there to build you and mold you into this better person.

And now you've made it through you adolescence and it's time to be a "grown up". Some of the "pushers" remain the same, i.e. parents and siblings, while old ones are replaces with new ones. These new "pushers" are bosses and collegues. They play the same roll as teachers/mentors and friends.

This biggest difference though, is that everyone as a collective have started pushing you harder than when you were young. Your parents challenge you a little more to be independent, siblings become slightly... very slightly... more sensitive to the feeling of being on the brink of ejection from that MGR.

And now we have external, invisible, pushers.

Society, culture, world events, local events, religion, politics, etc.

These are the most relentless of them all.

They are unbiased, unchanging pushers with no emotional attachment to people at all. They push at the same steady pace no matter what. they are like adding a motor to your MGR. 

This motor has, somewhere along the lines, developed a malfunctions and the speed at which it's spinning the Merry-Go-Round has been increasing and increasing and increasing and there is no one there strong enough to counter act this.

This motor has us at a point where we feel like we are hanging onto the MGR by our fingertips, figting against the centrifugal force as our bodies flail in the wind because of the speed at which our MGR is now going. 

So often we hear people say "the world is just spinning to fast", but the truth is the earth hasn't changes pace, the people on it have changed our perception. Social media makes the world too small. The media makes it too negative. And the people in it make it too scary.

It is natural for us to become defensive when we feel like we are being attacked and this "motor" that spins us in circles doesn't help. It makes us feel even more vulnerable, and it makes us all insane. The feeling of order that we once had when mom and dad were pushing us has now flown out the window just like a toy car flies off that merry-go-round when you push it too hard.

When you are spinning like that you go through all kinds of different emotions. You feel fear, anxiety, stress, vulnerubility, loneliness, frustration, doubt, despair, sadness, hate, anger, and eventually helplessness.

I have experiences these high velocity spinning emotions before on many occasions with respect to different life experiences. They occur on different levels each time. But when I think about the world as a whole I still feel it on a deeper level, especially the feeling of helplessness.

When I watched CNN on Saturday, November 14th, I felt a deep and uncontrollable drop into helplessness. It was a similar feeling I had in my 6th grade Biology class on September 11, 2001 when my principle came on the PA system to tell us about the World Trade Center and the planes that had crashed with such force into them.

I feel these emotions on a deeper level now that I am older and have a better understanding of the world around me, but these horrible events still leave my head spinning uncontrollably. 

I don't know what to feel about the most recent reports on the news about "Anonymous" and their movement to what they call a non-violent war against ISIS. I don't know much about it other than they are now asking organized government to step aside or look the other way while they take their vigilante crusade and turn it against ISIS. They claim to have shut down thousands of social media accounts and sites that are used to target and recruit new members to ISIS. I am torn because I want the terrorism here and abroad to cease as soon as possibly, but this anarchist approach may be a little too dangerous.

 

One thing I know with absolute certainty is that this Merry-Go-Round never stops spinning until it stops forever. It may slow down a little as we get older, but one day the brakes will be engaged and He will call us home from the playground. Each and every one of us. 

For some of us the stop will come gradually, the Merry-Go-Round slows down more and more each day as the pushers become our children and grandchildren. They are the ones who push with gentle and forgiving hands and guide us slowly to a stand still. Others of us will have a very abrupt stop, coming out of nowhere, as though the emergency break was pulled and our lives splatter againts the poles that were there to hold us onto the Merry-Go-Round. And then there will be a select few who are spun so hard by the motor and the people in their lives that they simply let go and fly off the MGR and then they come to a stop when they hit the ground.

In the end, we have our own ride to go on and they all start and end, generally speaking, the same way. Our headstones read two dates, but it's the dash between them that really means the most. We need to remember to revert back to the pushers who are more caring and genuin when the motor that is society and the world around us seems to be taking over and pushing us too fast. They will be the counter balance that helps to slow it down. We may not be able to regain full control, but at least we will have people on our side to guide us through those times.