A friend shared a TikTok video recently featuring a young man singing a COVID-19 lament.
Her reason for sharing was simpatico: “Covid has been hard for us 20-somethings.”
The Captain went apoplectic!
Has she not been paying attention?
COVID-19 has been hard for us 50-somethings too.
And for the 40-somethings… and the 30 somethings…
But if you have read even the slightest information or watched even a single news broadcast about the ongoing pandemic, you would know that COVID-19 has been ESPECIALLY hard for the 60-, 70-, 80- and 90-somethings.
Or is it that 20-somethings are just generally unaware of anything outside of their own personal bubble?
It’s not just about you, honey!
You know that, right?
Back to the TikTok video: Jazzy DJ Chris, or whoever the hell he is, is so distraught about the pandemic that he has written his own song about it.
COVID B STEALIN MY GOLDEN YEARS
Yes, obviously from the basement of his parents’ house, surrounded by thousands of dollars of electronic equipment and an internet connection to the whole world, this 25-year-old laments that COVID is stealing his “golden years”!
His “golden years”!
What the hell does that even mean to a 25-year-old?
I don’t know, but COVID-19 is “stealing” them!
Again, this is apparently not happening to anyone else.
Only him.
Or at least only to the 20-somethings in America.
Captain’s Note: Mates, if the response you are formulating in your tiny little brain is, “OK Boomer”, you can stop reading right now and go TikTok yourself.
The Captain is so tired of the whining of the younger generations.
I blame it on those damned “participation trophies” they were given as children.
“Everyone’s a winner!”
Bullshit! Some of you lost!
Life is full of little disappointments. Get over it!
But you know what? Those children have grown up.
And they are still expecting the world to be handed to them.
First it was, “I went to college and took some bullshit degree that I thought would be easy, but now I can’t find a job!”
Or, “I can’t find a job that pays $200,000 with my bullshit psych undergrad degree!”
Then it was, “I went to college and took out thousands of dollars in bullshit student loans I can’t repay. Someone needs to pay them for me!”
“These are my golden years!”
Lean in here, mates, for a little advice from the Captain.
If you are going to waste your time and your parents money going to college without making an effort to learn something, at least take a history class.
Here’s what I mean:
In 1940 the United States initiated the Selective Service to conscript young men ages 21-45 to fight in the second world war.
WWII draftees livin' their best life!
Ten million men were drafted, another 40 million served voluntarily. More than 400,000 of them died in that war, 671,800 returned home wounded.
Livin' their best life on the beach at Normandy!
Their golden years.
In 1950, 1.5 million young men ages 18-35 were drafted to fight in the Korean War. Another 1.3 million volunteered. My father was one of those volunteers.
Livin' their best life in the DMZ!
More than 40,000 of them died, 100,000 were wounded.
Their golden years.
In 1969, the lottery began again, calling up 2.2 million men ages 18-26 to fight in Vietnam. My cousin was one of those; he returned home filled with shrapnel but alive.
Livin' their best life in the jungles of Vietnam!
The names of the 58,000+ who died are inscribed on a stone wall in Washington, D.C.
Their golden years.
More recent, my nephew voluntarily
enlisted in the Army. He spent his golden years hunkered down in an artillery
battery in Afghanistan. He came home, others didn't.
Their golden years!
But you, you poor 20-something!
You have been occasionally confined at home these past two years (unless you have a job as a front-line or essential worker, which I doubt).
Restaurants and clubs have been occasionally shuttered, so you can’t go out and party as you please.
You refused a vaccine that the world medical community recommends because you, with your bullshit college degree, are smarter than all of them.
And some places ask you to wear a face mask to help stop the spread of a potentially fatal virus.
OMG! You have been SO inconvenienced!
And in your golden years!
You whine constantly on social media and yet you have the whole world at your disposal!
You can still buy what you want from Amazon and it will be delivered to you.
You can have fast food and even groceries delivered to your doorstep.
There are a myriad of options to communicate with friends and family.
You poor thing, missing out on your golden years and all that!
And the Captain feels so sorry for you!
But not because you are missing out on your golden years. No, that’s just bullshit. The years of your life are what they are.
Any year can be golden.
In fact, they all are.
But you can't see that, can you 20-something?
No, the Captain feels sorry for you because you are so shallow and narcissistic that you don't realize that everyone else on this planet is also dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
We have all faced the threat of serious illness; we have all been confined; we have all had our social lives limited; we have all been inconvenienced...
And now WE have to deal with your whiny ass as well!
In fact, you’ve just robbed the Captain of two golden hours of my golden day!
Listen here, Mates. As of this writing, there has been 359 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, resulting in 5.6 million deaths; more than 871,000 deaths have occurred in the U.S. alone.
It’s not just about you, 20-something.
There are no participation trophies for LIFE!
Captain's Note: Even as I write this, tensions are building again between the U.S. and Russia. If war breaks out, you 20-somethings may be spending your golden years in Ukraine courtesy of Uncle Sam.
You better appreciate what you've got - golden or not - right now!
