"We're the middle children of history, no purpose, no place" - Fight Club
We've got Middle Child Syndrome -- Our whole generation. Our whole Western World in fact. We all whine about finding our purpose, finding our place. We all want attention so badly, we want to be noticed, we try and we try, but we're just not happy. We're lost, we're left out, we're that needy middle child who feels ignored and overlooked and who begs for recognition. We have no "Great War", no "Great Depression", no world-altering, lifestyle-impeding, future-destroying events to contend with on the day to day here in the Great White North or in the Land of the Free. And yet it seems we cannot be without the theatrics and the tragedies, however ironic and fabricated they truly are. Boredom seems to have replaced poverty as the greatest threat to our life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. We're bored, and desperately looking for ways to become un-bored.
We are human, and there are these deep stores of passion in us that have to be directed towards some entity. So we passionately pour ourselves into the stupidest things. We become passionate about TV shows, passionate about other people's lives, passionate about anything that can distract us, trick us. We are so void of purpose and so gullible that we spend countless hours marathoning TV shows and hope in the end to feel as though we have accomplished something.
We're the middle children of history. We have had parents and older siblings who have paved the way for us. Handed us this lifestyle on a platter. Done everything they thought would set us on a path success, but are we a generation of success stories? No....we're lazy, and we waste our creative energy. We misplace our passions. We're discouraged from disagreement in the name of tolerance, and so we turn to topics that are safe, topics that don't spark dissension, or change, or inspiration or real passion. All the while we secretly long for those grand struggles so that our stories will point to something significant.
Maybe humanity is meant for heartache and suffering. Maybe that's what brings us to life, brings us purpose and place. Maybe thats why we try to invent our own hardships to give meaning to our lives. We want to see progression in our lives but we don't. We feel like the place holder. We feel like we deserve more...or maybe less. We feel like we're waiting....for our turn.
