It's Time To Stop Shaming People For Having Harmless Fun

This morning, as I was browsing my news app, I came across this article from LADbible.  For the TL;DR version: guy runs right into Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station in London, hits the wall pretty hard, shouts "Fuck, it's closed," and runs away.  The article recounts the scene from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in which Harry's unable to get to the platform, speculates that this anonymous prankster was doing it for clout (which makes no sense; his name has not been publicised), and anyway, it happened back in 2018.  And when I saw it on my news app, after the paragraph that ends with "It turned out that—on that occasion—it was because the House Elf Dobby had sealed the door in an attempt to stop Harry from travelling to Hogwarts, rather than the fact that it simply doesn't exist and magic isn't real", there was a one-sentence paragraph that simply read, "Sorry, folks, but it's time to grow up."

While the sentence seems to have disappeared from the article as of this writing, I have to admit that I have a bit of a problem with the fact that it was even there at all.  Regardless of what you think about J.K. Rowling and her transphobia—and wow, that's probably going to be a whole other post on here eventually—I deeply disagree with the idea that being an adult has to mean that the only fun you're allowed to have involves raising children, exchanging pleasantries with co-workers, and occasionally going out to dinner (probably for a work thing).  There's this idea out there that once you reach A Certain Age—and nobody really says what it is, but it's probably somewhere around thirty years old—you have to become dull and boring and just completely give up anything that isn't 100% serious and practical.

Quite frankly, fuck that shit.

As far as I'm concerned, even though we carry the responsibilities of adult life, adults are allowed to be silly.  We're allowed to be creative.  We're even allowed to make utter fools of ourselves in front of other people by making references to pop culture things that have since fallen out of style and/or favour.  I'm actually quite in agreement with the sentiments expressed by Randall Munroe in this xkcd comic—that people who are grown-ups now get to decide what that means to us.  Growing up doesn't have to mean that you never have fun or make people laugh.  It just means that you have different responsibilities and more demands on your time.

Besides, life is hard right now.  The cost of living is unconscionably high.  There are two major conflicts happening with the potential for more, and in most of the world, financial policy seems to be focusing on making sure that all of the money gets funnelled to those who don't need it and away from those who don't have enough.  Climate catastrophe abounds.  So does human tragedy.  We need positive change and we need it yesterday.

We also need to add what joy we can to the world.  As long as we're not harming others, that is more than okay!  Sometimes we need a bit of silliness, laughter, and mirth.  Those who roll their eyes and make snide comments will do so no matter what; personally, if I'm going to encounter the petty unpleasantness of small minds, I'd rather do so in the company of someone who's trying to make the world a better, shinier place, even if it's only temporary.

In the words of one of my favourite Tumblrs...

"It is my solemn and sacred duty to make the vibe as silly as I can, and with your support we could achieve maximum silliness."

Nostalgia

 For better or worse, I'm an older Millennial.  My childhood was filled with bright colours, wild 80's hair, awesome music, weird and sometimes dangerous toys (for example, I knew someone who broke her ankle using a Skip-It, and I myself incurred a number of minor injuries on my childhood best friend's Pogo Ball), and technology that was considerably less advanced than what we have today.  I could never have imagined that touching a spot on a screen would allow me to issue voice commands to my car, telling it what phone number to call or giving it an address for the GPS (on the rare occasion when I have Location Services enabled on my phone, anyway).  Being able to take a small-ish rectangular device out of my pocket to look up practically any bit of useful (or uselesss) information was unthinkable.  Portable computers technically existed—my father had one for work—but there is no way on Earth I'd ever have wanted that thing to be on my lap, because it was really, really heavy; I honestly think that it weighed more than my dog at the time, a big, goofy black Labrador Retriever.  Meanwhile, I'm fairly certain that my current laptop computer weighs only a little more than my violin in its case.  Times have changed.

Life, as they say, seemed simpler then.  But then, it always does to a child.  I'm sure today's kids will be saying much the same thing about our current world as I'm saying about the world as I experienced it in the 80's and 90's.

People love to roast my generation for being nostalgic, but I have to admit, I understand the urge to be nostalgic, even the urge to feel a bit smug about the things that we knew and remember, and the skills that we have, that young people today don't understand or have no reference for.  (I recently saw a post on Tumblr about a fanfic in which there was a DVD-style menu repeating on a VHS tape, which is impossible unless, for some unfathomable and/or trolling-related reason, somebody actually recorded a DVD menu onto a VHS tape.)  Because frankly, we've lived through a lot, and it's natural that many members of my generation—perhaps especially my segment of it, the older ones who are sometimes called "Xennials" or "the Oregon Trail generation"—should be looking back at that time in our lives with a certain amount of longing.  

We weren't expected to be available to anyone and everyone at all hours of the day or night.  Most of us were cared for reasonably well by our parents or other caregivers.  The predominant message about us was that we could change the world, our lives had worth and meaning, and if we worked hard enough, we would be rewarded for it.  And as anyone who hasn't been living as a hermit for the past quarter century or so would know, it hasn't exactly worked out that way.

My generation has gone from being told that we were the hopeful builders of a bright future to being convenient scapegoats for many of the ills of the present.  We're told now that we're the entitled and self-centred destroyers of multiple industries, too lazy to work hard enough to afford a basic home (including apartment rentals), too old to be worth a hand up when we have trouble finding work (many of the most helpful job-finding services and entry-level positions with even half-decent compensation are only available to recent college or university graduates under the age of 30), and overall, just a giant disappointment to the world.  Mental health issues run rampant among Millennials,  and have done so since we were in our 20s or so at least.  Small wonder that so many of us try to find joy where we can, including in silly slang and the memory of a time when we were told that we had value, that our dreams were worth having and chasing, and that if we worked hard enough, we could change the world for the better.

Life isn't easy for most people.  And the 80's and 90's weren't exactly a cakewalk either,  but it's easier to get sentimental about those decades because they're so temporally far away now.  And frankly, I find that it's nice to remember a time when I, and people like me, weren't being blamed for everything that's wrong with the world.  It's nice to remember hope.  Sometimes I'm foolish enough to still feel it.

So, yeah.  Cringe at Millennials for being nostalgic if you must.  (Given our general fondness for self-roasting humour, we may well be cringing right along with you.)  But don't be an asshole about it.  If nothing else, someday there'll be somebody poking fun at you for ridiculous generational stereotypes and nostalgia for the world as it was when you were young.