Good enough

One of the recent issues of “Polityka” contained an article which dwelled on the shift in young Poles’ attitude towards life. The new stance, put across in two simple English words “good enough”, is a comprehensive response to all pursuits which used to determine hierarchy of goals in older Poles’ lives. Career, materials goods, outperforming others and all that stuff that deluded people in the first twenty years past the downfall of socialism in Poland.

Now, as one generation have walked the path of bending over backwards to excel in private and professional life, the next one draw conclusions from their struggle. Sick of the rat race, they ease up and tackle things pragmatically. ‘Do as much as you have to’ and nothing more. Keep level with the others, pulling out at all stops will not be rewarded, so why bother? If standing out involves more stress, the balance is tipped towards chill-out.

Don’t resist your parents. Times of generation gap are long over. These days parents easily find a common tongue with their offspring and even support them in their pursuit of being ‘good enough’. Have they learnt from their mistakes and wish to spare their children futile efforts? Is everything in order? Since centuries each new generation challenged the patterns and lifestyle taken after ancestors. In the second decade of the twenty-first century this ever-lasting process ceased…

Give up on your lofty ideals? The world’s abhorrent and you won’t change it. There’s too much stuff out of place and you’re out of tool to mend it. Your power is diminutive in comparison to complexity of all problems, so don’t take it on the chin, there’s no use. If you can’t change something, conform to it. Relax and take the path of least resistance, you’ll be better off by holding back from taking any action, if you’d attain nothing anyway…

Just be nice – if you don’t feel like being nice to somebody, pretend to be nice. Messing with someone you don’t like doesn’t pay off. This leads to duplicity, but this is how many well-brought-up youngsters behave these days. If you talk to them, they can make an excellent impression on you, but deep down they might think you’re an arsehole. Well, keeping up appearances simply bears fruit, so why not pretending?

Worry as little as possible. Bring a problem to your mind the moment you have to tackle it, not beforehand. Generally try to make your life stress-free…

What’s my take on it? There’s something tempting in being easy-going, yet I’d never fully indulge in such attitude. I’m just finishing a mentally and physically debilitating weekend (catching up with household and garden chores, running errands in town, plus picking up my grandfather from the hospital), while most of my friends have been enjoying two days of at least moderate rest. I could have also given a shit about it all, tell my parents to toil away despite their tiredness, leave lots of stuff undone, tell my grandmother to hire somebody to tidy up her flat if she doesn’t feel up to, tell my father to pick up his father from the hospital on his own and cut down my activities to the bare minimum of issues that affect only me and are important only to me. My conscience tells me I can’t embrace it. Young people should be brought up in cognisance of dark sides of life – taken to hospices, hospitals, poor districts and towns, they should know the taste of depravity, for the very sake of appreciating what they have. And being ‘good enough’ somehow doesn’t square with my concept…

Next posting bound to crop up after the next weekend (heading to Olsztyn for a friend’s wedding).