What's Charlie Like?

Charlie would seem to be a sullen and withdrawn young man, but is he really? I don’t know. He is, literally, permanently attached to his headphones and YouTube. I’m not exaggerating. I have never seen him smile, unless, of course, he is staring at his phone’s screen. Sam is always yelling at him. “Charlie!” just to get his attention. Apparently, this is true of his generation. 

Boris tells me her 18 year old son is exactly the same. 

So, are they all going to be deaf in 20 years? Isn’t that what the medical experts say? 

So sullen? The jury is still out. Withdrawn? Indeed. Withdrawn from the world. Let’s hope he doesn’t get angry listening to the wrong people on YouTube so that Sam and I end up as a headline for all the wrong reasons.

And really, who can blame them. Their future looks anything but rosy, that’s an understatement, looks anything but certain. The universal human greed has stopped anyone making meaningful changes to our pollution and now the current generation looks like the latter part of their lives are going to be miserable. The outlook is not looking good for the second half of this century.

Who can blame them for tuning out.

Sexy Travis next door made some half joking comment over the back fence about my open fire when I was chopping wood to light it. 

“You guys have screwed up the future and still you are burning wood to heat your house.” Sexy snarl smile.

And I looked him in the eye and I said, “You are right, you guys are screwed.”

I’m wondering if he was used to getting excuses from the generations who came before his, and that no one had ever put it that bluntly to him before, as he stopped talking, gazed at me momentarily, kind of stammered, and headed back inside his house.

And I think they are screwed, because even if there was the political will, or the business will, to act now – it is weird that there’s not, as we are all going down the same shit shoot together, rich or poor – there is something like a 10 year lag period between the implementing of policies and the effect those polices might have. And we are suffering from climatic weather changes now.

And even if the current generation survives the effects of climate change, they are probably not going to survive the draconian changes that will be needed, that will restrict their lives unbearably, for them to survive the effects of climate change.

Either way they are fucked.

And to think, if politicians and the greedy, selfish bastards that run the business world today, had tackled the problem 20 years ago, we’d probably have had a smooth transition and would be through it now. 

Of course, it hasn’t even been 4 weeks yet for Charlie. We’ll see. Keeping an open mind. Trying to, but I am not getting much from him. You know. It is hard to get close to someone if they are always effectively tuned out. He doesn’t talk, so I don’t know how he is feeling. I know, I’m the adult, and I should try harder. Should, could? He’ll answer one question, but if I ask a second question he just doesn’t answer.