On Growing Up

You know, I don't quote John Cougar Mellencamp very often, but I'm a firm believer in his lyric "Growing up means growing old and on to dying and dying don't sound to me like all that much fun." I also really believe in the 7 Seconds belief in staying young until you die. I'm quite fond of BYO Records feelings on age too. Youth is an attitude and not a number. I'm sure there's a million other quotes out there that serve the same purpose. Today is my birthday and I'm turning 25 for the seventh time, or you can say I'm twenty twelve today. Regardless of how you cut it, I'm well past the age where one is expected to still care about punk rock or music. Usually by the time you hit 25 (or graduate college, which ever comes first), you're expected to do things like "grow up" or "look like more professional" or other preconceptions of what it means to be an adult. There's a difference between growing up and adulthood and I think growing up is a bunch of bullshit. I've spent a great deal of time over the last year at reunion shows for bands I loved when I was in high school and college as well as a bunch of shows where although I was the oldest person in the room, I didn't feel out of place. What I learned from this was that when people who were into punk rock when they were kids are out of college and bought into a lot of the BS that college feeds you (even though you do acquire a lot of good knowledge in college, you're still fed a lot of empty promises about a happy capitalistic future), they tend to think that punk is a bunch of sticky kids stuff. They tend to forget about their more idealistic days and leave that behind for capital gain. They forget about the fact that music still exists and is evolving and say horribly stupid things like "back when I was punk rock..." and "remember when the scene was still good?" They sound just like the old fucks who would hang out in the back at Pegboy shows when we were kids, who we thought were fucking out of touch geezers. Now my generation has become the "out of touch geezers" and instead of talking about the old Exit and the Effigies, they talk about McGregor's and the Bollweevils. I don't care anymore about any of that. There's a great scene in Chicago, whether these old fucks realize it or not. I know it's a really corny thing to say and kind of childish, but if you're not punk now, you never were. That's just the way it is. When I say that, I don't mean how you dress or what your hair looks like. It means that you're still active in the scene and you're still support new bands and doing something for the betterment of everyone and not just yourself and your boss. There's nothing punk about pulling your leather jacket out once a week to go out for dollar beers at Exit and talk about "the good ol' days." Instead, you should be making new memories and getting out there and doing something. Even if it means encouraging your kids to be active in the scene and getting excited about it with them. I remember when I was just getting into punk rock, my parents wanted to know all about the stuff I was listening to and not just in a cautionary way either. They were genuinely interested in what I was getting all worked up over. I remember when they realized that I was learning something from listening to punk rock, they let me do things like put on shows in their basement and have band practice at their house. They were extremely supportive of everything, whether it was funny clothes, crazy lefty politics or loud music in their house. My folks were boomers who came over from the old country and because of that were never really part of the hippie movement. They were working class growing up and still to this day are working class. They raised me with the ideal that it's my responsibility to make the world a better place and not to wait for someone else to do it. I think that's the one thing that I've truly held onto and even though I hate the fact that my generation is being forced to fix what the hippies fucked up, I'm just glad that my parents have always tried to be part of the solution and raised me to be the same way.
The one thing that punks from my generation can do is raise bright kids who know how to do the right thing. It's our responsibility to fix the wrongs, before it becomes even more detrimental to do so and part of that is making sure our children understand the errors of the past. I guess what I'm really saying is that adulthood means accepting responsibility and growing up means accepting assimilation. When I say responsibility, I don't mean "get job, get wife, get kids, get fucked," I mean realizing that there is a right thing and a wrong thing and understanding that it's up to you to figure out which is which and try to do what's right. I know this is a really simplified concept, but not every concept has to be complicated. I've done well for myself living off of this model and I'm perfectly happy. I fully autonomous from other people (ie - mom and dad), I do what I say I'm going to do and I try to make sure I don't hurt anyone in the process. I attempt to live as "suffer-free" as possible and I attempt to do what's right for all whom my actions will affect.
I'm not trying to tell anyone how to live, because how you live is your business and not mine, but I'm just sharing my model for living a life that I think is good. This is how I've transitioned into adulthood and managed to stay true to my punk beliefs.

Much love and be good to each other,

Chris