If we are to continue down a path of innovation and creativity, we must learn from those who came before us, and be open to the inspiration of those who follow. Living well is a multi-directional task. Each morning at my altar, I honor the lineage of ancestors and descendants.* As ritual orients us in space, honoring the ancestors and descendants orients us in time. We are helped by this awareness.
Last weekend, I went to hear L.A. punk band X. They were favorites from my youth, when I was a teenage Gen Xer and they were ahead of the curve Boomers in their late 20s. Now in their mid 50s, and with a lead singer with MS, they still pump out speed, volume, and sincerity. Unfortunately, many of their old political songs are still topical. Before I headed out, I quipped on Facebook (and Twitter and Google+, for good measure), “I wonder if there will be a middle-aged mosh pit?”
There was. But you know who started it? It wasn’t the early Gen Xers like myself in the crowd, nor the late Boomers. It was the Millennials, and young ones at that. The ones who started the mosh pit were around 16.
Here’s how it went down:
The club was full. Older folks had staked out the stage, a few of them with their tweens in the very front. About three bodies deep from the stage at this point, my friend and I remarked on the paucity of young people in the crowd. I’d seen only a handful, despite the popularity of Old School Punk in certain circles. Then, right before X came on, a group of teenagers appeared behind us, lips and tongues blue from suckers, backpacks taking up precious space. When the music started, they rushed forward and began slamming. The adults who had claimed territory were not pleased. We had earlier attempted to diffuse two pissing contests about space, but these Millennials didn’t care about turf wars. They were here for music, movement, and the energy rolling off the stage. We happily bounced and slammed with them. As the pit grew in intensity, some of the adults scolded the teens, repeatedly trying to control them and keep them out of their space. The mosh pit increased despite these efforts.
I was having a blast. I’ve written before about the magick of the mosh pit, and though I tend to mostly stay on the edges, I appreciate their beauty. This one was no different. When the middle-aged big guys discovered the teens and 20 somethings having such a good time, they moved in, and the slamming intensified. I moved, catching the waves pounding outward, becoming an edge holder who helped push people back into the pit when they veered off course. I was knocked back a few times and have a bruises from being stepped on. One young man asked if I was OK. I grinned and said I was just fine. A man a few years older than I told me I was brave. That last comment sheds some poignant light on the sociology I kept witnessing:
The skirmishes continued, with some people still fighting for territory. At one point John Doe admonished a man from the stage, saying, “You do realize this is a punk show, don’t you?” And the staff who descended to keep the edges of the pit safe spoke sharply to someone else, “This is the pit. You have to let people have their fun!” Meanwhile, the Millennials, having instigated the process, pushed toward the front and bounced in place, leaving the pit to the middle aged men who realized they could work something out by hurling themselves against each other. The Millennials only returned to the pit near the end of the show.
The lesson I took, as I avoided flying beer, slammed, danced, and grinned, was this: You cannot control the descendants, nor should you. The mosh pit would never have started without them, and we need the mosh pit. We need high intensity created by an exuberant joy in simply being alive. We need instigation. Without it, we grow comfortable in our own little worlds, in our own little homes, in our own little corporate fiefdoms or wherever else we stake a claim. I have taken inspiration from my ancestors and from those who have paved the way, including the members of X, who are at least a decade ahead of me. I also honor the Millennials who are figuring out a way to live vibrantly in this messed up world they’ve grown into. They are taking to the streets and the dance floors, and they are helping each other.
We need to seek out that which jars our status quo. That isn’t brave. It is simply practical: We need openness to that which shocks and irritates us, or we become moribund. We need to not grow comfortable in our place in the hierarchy. We don’t own space just because we decide to stand there, especially if we haven’t built it with our own efforts. Change is coming. Change is always coming. We may as well make room.
Millennials, I salute you. I salute your verve, creativity, and anger. I salute your mapping of uncharted territory. I hope you learn something from us, as I’ve learned from my predecessors, but more than that, I hope to continue to learn from you. The only advice I might offer? Stay engaged. Stay interested. Stay strong. And pay the $2 to coat check your backpacks. They are a pain the ass for the other people trying to share the pit.
I leave you all with my favorite image from the night: a 20 something in full hipster regalia, including ugly glasses, bad facial hair and a wooly hat, saw that a teen was trying to get up to crowd surf and couldn’t figure out how. The hipster went to help him, but the teen shrugged and said “That’s OK” when the hipster insisted, and crouched, offering his hands and shoulders for the young man to climb. He was hoisted into the air and we all caught him, passing him overhead, lit by the stage lights, as we danced and crashed along in anonymous darkness, one body, trying to figure out how to get along.
___________________
* Honoring the descendants as well as the ancestors was inspired many years ago by Ravyn Stanfield, a priestess from Portland, OR.
pic is by Shadow Tannin at deviantArt
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I adore that image in the last paragraph. gods bless the descendants.
LOVE X!!!! I was in LA in the lat 70 and 80 and i was in a punk band in the 90 and Exene came to see use so cool.That was my 15 minute of fame. Just having Exene there!
As you suggested in “Kissing the Limitless”, Thorn, I’ve made a regular space for my descendants when I construct my internal Merkaba. Even though there’s only one physical one of these.
Love,
Terri in Joburg
As ever, thanks so much for this!
You’ve touched on something that has been on my mind a lot lately, and which I’ll be addressing at one of my PantheaCon sessions–the one I’m both looking forward to the most, and also dreading the most: “The Ekklesía Antínoou and Queer Youth Spirituality.” I am dreading it because we should have done something like this many years ago (and I’m sad to see that we’re still the only such offer on the books, and very likely were the only such offer floated), and because I don’t want to end up presenting something in a manner that utterly bores or disillusions the young people who might be attending the session. However, the reason I’m looking forward to it immensely as well is because I have no notion what the results of it might be, and I’m hoping that the young people present will tell us what they’d like from us, rather than me and our group telling them what we can do for them.
This is that side of teaching that I totally love, and which doesn’t happen as often as I’d like it to a lot of the time: the part where the ostensible “students” or “audience” in turn become the teachers and the presenters, without even realizing they are or intending to be in many cases.
I could say a great deal more on this topic, but I’ll spare your comment section for the moment, and will probably elaborate on it in a blog post before PantheaCon. But, again, thank you for sharing this experience! I’ve never been a mosh-person, but I appreciate hearing about it!
As a parent, I absolutely love this article. I learn something new from my own mini-mosher (age 2) every day, and I hope we continue to encourage and push each other’s boundaries as he gets older.
Beautiful and poignant!
Love it! As a Mom of two teens, I totally agree with your statement, “You cannot control the descendants, nor should you.” We are here as guides and facilitators, not prison guards or strict supervisors. Teens are ready to explore and expand their world, and I think it’s great when the community can support them in that work, rather than spreading fear and disdain about “what they might do.” Thanks for the great post.
Blessings!
Starcat
Thanks for the comments, everyone!
I was so struck by the sense of entitlement displayed by some of the GenXers and Boomers, who seemed to feel that they owned the space by simple virtue of having shown up a little earlier than some others. No virtue or effort or talent… just time? Really?
It is my hope that I continue to take in this lesson.
Speaking of John Doe, I just always think of California Feri people when I hear *this:* (duet called ‘The Golden State.’
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJaYGABTGA0&feature=related
Maybe be kind to some of us old ‘Gen X’ punkers: seems we’ve got some outer-planet stuff going on that may not be so straightforward. If I were on the edge of a Pit, I’m not so sure *I’d* remember what year it is.
It’s not always easy to remember that we *have* descendants, when it seems so many of us just got stuck between an older world and a new,in one way or another. What are we, old, young, still stuck somewhere in our 20′s fighting some rear-guard action for some tomorrow we may not have realized we backed into… a little of all these things…
I’m kind of feeling it: ‘When did I stop being ‘young people?’ Did I ever really? Do I even know *how?*
I do know I’m generally-impressed with a lot of people younger than me, so maybe, ready or not, it’s time for me to try and be older people. Give or take a couple of mosh pits, maybe.
Friday,
I bet that’s true for every generation as it finds itself in middle-age. We have to learn how to simultaneously not stagnate in what was, try to remain part of what is, while lending our experience to what is to come.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aH5eUhuFZ8g&feature=related
never too old to rock and roll, never too young to die…
Thank you SO much for this post. As a Millennial punk and witch, I’m holding my head a bit higher having read it. Only for a minute though, before I dive back into the pit again ; )
I am an also a GenXer, and X was one of my all-time favorite bands. Good times. Although I treasure those times, although they were very formative experiences for me, I think the worst thing anyone can do is live in the past and idealize it. If you’re doing that, you’re not dealing with life today. Life is hard, but no matter how difficult it is, you still have to deal with it. And life was hard back then too.
I have a lot of respect for Millenials and younger people. I think they’re nicer than my generation, and less afraid to try new things.
Sea Serpent,
I’m curious – do you see a lot of people trying to live in the past or idealize it? I don’t have those sorts of people in my life, really. The folks I’m surrounded with are all happy to be figuring out the now.