Author: MKW Publishing

Gen X

~ MKW Publishing ~ 7 Comments

I have done an article on Gen Z, and speculating on that being the ‘zombie generation’, and how they seem to have it in society. But this one will be for Gen X, the last vestige of an upbringing and attitude that no longer exists. But the product of it does. Us. The X-ers. And recently I’ve watched an American woman do a couple of funny shorts, answering random internet people who ask, “Are Gen X-ers okay?” and “Didn’t y’all have access to sinks when you were a kid, why drink out of the hose?”. Well, her response nails it to me, and although done in a funny, punchy and humorous way, the truth in what she responds with is great. With classic timing and delivery, summing up, literally, some people’s childhoods, homelife, upbringing and influences, in a very concise and hilarious manner. Being locked out of the house all day, forgotten about by parents, had to feed yourself for the day, fend for yourself kind of thing. And if you are one of those ‘drink out of the hose’ kids, you possibly know what she means.

I have written briefly about escapades of childhood in The Hay Bale Incident, and of a time before technology in The Before Time, but I guess hadn’t fully appreciated the affects of those times on people, and how it creates a certain attitude amongst an entire generation. Mostly. There will always be ones who didn’t, or who can’t relate to that at all and within it there will be those who had extra weird childhoods as their parents were very good at even looking after themselves, let alone kids. But the toughened attitude that many in that age group now present, can’t be entirely by accident, can it? Maybe the ones from the 70’s and 80’s were meant to be the forgotten generations, the ones who fell through the cracks during recessions, financial collapses and whatever crisis they could manufacture to keep it as they wanted. Giving them an extra hammering now, and including the Millennials as they will also now be the ones with children, mortgages and businesses. The boomers having retired, and Gen-Z not quite able to get involved, and looking as though they will be locked out of ever having the opportunities we did. And it might seem like progress to think they get all new ones, and if it was anything positive and inspiring being pushed for the future, I would be behind it. It does not appear to be the case though, and if they don’t know any different, does it matter?

Being resilient, and practical, and being able to ‘fend for yourself’ aren’t traits that everyone has, or has even retained into adulthood if they did need to be a bit more savvy back in the day. Not all are able to get through childhood and life completely unaided, and despite appearances, many have their scars, emotional and physical. Understanding that what made you who you are, was often a product of someone else’s failure, distraction or circumstance. Lives overlapping and intertwining as we all end up sharing a certain space and time, whether we get on or not, or like each other or not, or can even relate to each other or not. Here we all are. But in the latest twist in society, it would seem that having those traits, or the extra behaviours that followed on from them was not entirely foreseen. Or maybe they were and that is why there is such a push to make people believe they need a label, and a medication that inevitably follows. To be convinced you are a problem, the problem, and it needs to be ‘fixed’. Because otherwise, we might have all spotted sooner that society is the problem, and how it has been set to work. It’s anyone guess whether there really are generational differences that are so easily defined by when you were born, or what you were taught. But if there wasn’t, it makes me wonder why they would spend so much time and energy separating us all out and making sure we have different societies to grow up in. That no decade can be like the last, constantly changing things to keep it all up in the air and never actually progressing, just the illusion of it…

(c) K Wicks

Maps and Islands

~ MKW Publishing ~ 4 Comments

Further to previous articles about maps and islands, An Island, Or Was It? and Atlantis? No That Would Be Silly, I spent some more time looking through maps of the 1500’s. One in particular is currently a favourite which you may be familiar with – Urbano Monte 1587. And an earlier one too, the Mappa Mundi. But in between there are others, showing places that apparently were, but no longer are. Named, routed and landmarks noted. But as far as we are told, they didn’t exist and were just bits of fiction added, or they just ‘got it wrong’, which may well be the case, we know that just because it is drawn or written, doesn’t mean it is real.

I noticed what looked to be an interesting feature on the 1587 map though, a spiral named as Vorago. Naturally I looked up the word, with its meaning being put as – An engulfing chasm : Abyss. And it seemed awfully close to where we have magnetic north showing, a strange feature which looks as though the images aren’t stitched together properly, so it appears fragmented and pixellated, like what happens when you curve something that isn’t supposed to be curved, but what do I know.

And it can be seen as a diamond formation of dots on earlier maps, this one noted as 1380 in roman numerals, seems very different from the other maps of that time, being that the mappa mundi is apparently from 1300.

And although it is speculated that most of these places noted above, are in fact modern day Iceland, Greenland, Shetlands Islands and The Orkneys – they say the others just simply don’t exist. Although, when you look at google earth today, there are shapes within the area which could have once been islands perhaps. Which leads back to a reoccurring question for me, if the water level has risen and fallen over time, to reveal land once lost, or cover land we once knew, how could that possibly happen? Could the land tilt, rise or drop? Or is it the water levels that have changed, draining every now and then and creating land bridges and bigger continents for a time, only to be covered again by a deluge from above. As the old saying goes, the waters above, and the waters below…

(c) K Wicks