WHY I LIKE YOUNG PEOPLE

At my 61st birthday party the other day one of the young people that hang out here walked over to where I was sitting and piped up: "Finally, Burkhart, I see you with someone your own age!"

He was referring to a guy from the neighborhood that had come in and made his self at home. And yes, he was near my age, perhaps in his 50's. Apparently the guy had met me at a drawing workshop somewhere years ago and just happened to be passing my place and re-introduced himself that very night. I didn't remember meeting him in the first place, but welcomed him into my home just the same.

After accosting two young females - both who left as a result of his intimidation - he made his way back to the patio where I sat in the midst of 50 or 60 young friends (most, but not all, in their late teens and twenties). I was nestled up against a young female, Emily, who was about to turn 18 the very next day. (You can bet Emily and I have a lot in common!)

But this guy weaseled his way into the conversation, and for the next two hours - until Emily had to catch the train home - sat right there almost in her lap, controlling her thoughts and conversations. He is a painter, he told her, but it's obviously also his line for picking up young females.

But that's where the similarities stop. Because of my long-standing status as an artist in the community, the youth have known of me and sought me out. Likewise, their parents and many teachers have approached me, tossing their young sons and daughters at my doorstep for direction. I really don't have to use a line to hook one of these kids, assuming I was even fishing.

Most of the youth who know me - and I'm not talking about those who come for a moment and judge from appearances - they know me as an icon: an established artist that has a greater goal in mind than getting laid. For I am a living demonstration of their wildest dreams. I am an assurance that their own future as artists and self-determining individuals is not only possible, but also immanent.

Ironically, I have had to throw off the advances of many young women who think that I am only a wild and horny old creature, ever ready to party with them and part their burning thighs with my cool tongue. Likewise I have sent the young druggies and celebrity seekers on the road out of here. Usually chasing after the same stupid chicks.

What happens when these young people frequent my home is similar to the one that took place when my daughter lived here. We learn from each other, and with each subsequent visit, respect one another more. We are creating a new world of possibilities built on the equality we both acknowledge in the other. This is something that has often been difficult or impossible for them to achieve within the typical family structure from which they came - here we are achieving the higher education that flows from acknowledging another's awareness.

I do not hold myself above these kids because of any supposed wisdom I possess over them. I recognize them as artists, musicians, poets, and likewise recognizing that they are communicating with me as clearly as I am with them.

Yes, we are learning to share a world that is not made up of young and old perimeters. This is the earth we live on - whether it's been around the mere 6,000 years of the Creationists, or for the billions and billions of years the Scientists theorize. But to believe that there is a difference of dozens of years between us - because me and you are standing a few inches apart - is ludicrous. Or when our hands touch for a moment, and we occupy the same sensation in space and time.

Michelangelo's depiction of the creation of Adam on the Sistine ceiling suggests that touch is beyond space/time -- beyond eternity. That there - or here - is no difference between the visible and the invisible, the past and the present, the young and the old. We all exist together at this very moment - only our perceptions of this phenomenon are "old" or "young," and these are the illusions that cast us in stone, rigid and unmovable.

When God created Adam from the dust of the earth, it was only a demonstration of Einstein's conversion of Energy into Mass via Light. Like Einstein and others, Michelangelo was able to see the reality of this happening. There is really nothing new under the sun, only a new way of presenting it to our senses.

Now the boy who had made the earlier comment was not privy to any of this. So I told him: "Hey dude. this guy is not my age. he's old enough to be my father." Actually we were nearly the same age, however he was from a much older mind-set than I am, appearing so much older in his wrinkled skin. "I don't know this dude from Adam!"

The young people who flock here - as well as many of my neighbors who observe my Sunday night gatherings - think that I hang out with young people to the exclusion of everyone else. They do not recognize that I do this only one day out of seven. the traditional day of rest: the day of renewal and regeneration. They do not see me the rest of the week, when I am on my bike cruising the street, or out in front of the house sweeping the sidewalks, or talking with the block captain or laughing with the derelicts that know me well. At such times I am literally plagued by the old and the ageing.

"Burkhart." they say to me, "Don't you think you should give some thought to your future? What will you do when it's time to retire? You don't own this house, you don't have any insurance, and you don't even own a car or have a burial plot."

They continue to argue by telling me of their great achievements: how they got an education, raised a family, worked for forty years and made provisions for their futures and yes, saved up for retirement. And lo and behold, now they are finally ready to live their lives and their long awaited dreams.

"But I have been living my life all along," I tell them. I did not save any money for a future day when I would retire. I retired a long time ago. Instead, I love my work and I spend every penny daily, living the life that most others save for and only anticipate happening in their ripe old ages.

All right, I'm writing this for the edification of young people. because I believe they are capable of understanding my unorthodox choices to a far greater degree than their biased relatives will give them credit. It seems like the older and wiser someone becomes, the further away from understanding they travel. The ego-less monk Leonard Cohen stated it succinctly after fifty years of pursuing wisdom. "I chased away the Light with my own understanding."

But with children it is not really a matter of understanding... because even they understand things at the level they are at in their development. I saw it in my own youth, when it was acceptable to think of the earth as "flat," only to have it replaced by a more correct understanding: "round" when I got to high school. Shit. in college they were going to tell me it was oval. I knew that!

The earth is all of this - it's our outlandish understanding of the earth that is not. Really, I can have breakfast with a scientist and discuss a multi-dimensional universe, take lunch with a wino who is only trying to walk a straight line to the liquor store on the corner, hoping not to fall off the edge of the earth, then follow up with dinner in a round and warm orifice like the one old Mother Earth keeps enticing me with - a Wendy's sour cream & chive potato!

I love the youth, because like me - and anyone who speaks the truth - they do not have any idea what is going on outside their bedroom at home. In candid conversations, most of them will admit they don't know what's happening. It is the same for all of us: Strip a businessman or woman of their office, and they become the jobless and homeless in an unfamiliar world. Walk down the wrong street on the way to school or work and it is a hellish nightmare or a fantasy filled with strange, unimaginable characters.

Children may not yet be able to separate these fantastic visions they have from the hard reality manifesting down some of those streets, but they are ready to go there anyway. They are not sure who they are or what they will find there, but it will not be some worn-out "truth" they were taught in their infancy. It will be their own truth they discover, not the prefabricated combination of half-truths that produced them.

When I leave this home of mine - when the landlord dies and the property goes to his children - I'm out of here fast. But to where and what? I don't plan on moving a bunch of furniture to a new house. I'm walking out that door with the first person that proves to be as adventuresome. I'm putting my camera on my back and filling my shopping cart with photos and heading down the yellow line. Or I'm catching a plane past the great hole in America and headed to Amsterdam. or Spain. or.

After long spells living at home or in schools, young people are finally putting in their own identities. They are discovering who they are, not whom their parents and teachers think they should be. I like that. That's also my position. I am learning who I am in ever-newer contexts. And like the youth, many of my plans and dreams are untested and probably unrealizable. But I'll find that out, as they will.

For this reason, I like young people around me, in preference to the old and dying. It is a greater teaching to watch a child "die" to the old and erroneous ways they were inculcated with, than to witness an old person embroiled in the bitterness and regret their own vain strivings have reduced them to. To watch these old geezers sit back in their accolades, watching from the convenience of their retirement communes their own dying children fight a war for their amusement on TV is an abomination.

I am both a child and a parent, but I have never decided which. Looking back, I see that I have never allowed either aspect to rule me. At times, to be with the young is a regenerating experience, sharing the newfound knowledge about ourselves. But most of the time, truer to form, to be with the young is to be incredibly aware of how old I really am. I am undisputedly the "old geezer" in their midst...


	HOME RETURN TO THE COFFEEHOUSE ARTICLES MEXICO \| CCULT(URE) \| TRIBUNE \| ANOTHER VIEW \| YOUTH \| TRINITY & FRED \| AROMAS \| READER \| MUSIC \| LAST STOP WHY I LIKE YOUNG PEOPLE by Fred Burkhart 6/26/02 At my 61st birthday party the other day one of the young people that hang out here walked over to where I was sitting and piped up: "Finally, Burkhart, I see you with someone your own age!" He was referring to a guy from the neighborhood that had come in and made his self at home. And yes, he was near my age, perhaps in his 50's. Apparently the guy had met me at a drawing workshop somewhere years ago and just happened to be passing my place and re-introduced himself that very night. I didn't remember meeting him in the first place, but welcomed him into my home just the same. After accosting two young females - both who left as a result of his intimidation - he made his way back to the patio where I sat in the midst of 50 or 60 young friends (most, but not all, in their late teens and twenties). I was nestled up against a young female, Emily, who was about to turn 18 the very next day. (You can bet Emily and I have a lot in common!) But this guy weaseled his way into the conversation, and for the next two hours - until Emily had to catch the train home - sat right there almost in her lap, controlling her thoughts and conversations. He is a painter, he told her, but it's obviously also his line for picking up young females. Now don't get me wrong. because that is also my line for picking up young females! But that's where the similarities stop. Because of my long-standing status as an artist in the community, the youth have known of me and sought me out. Likewise, their parents and many teachers have approached me, tossing their young sons and daughters at my doorstep for direction. I really don't have to use a line to hook one of these kids, assuming I was even fishing. Most of the youth who know me - and I'm not talking about those who come for a moment and judge from appearances - they know me as an icon: an established artist that has a greater goal in mind than getting laid. For I am a living demonstration of their wildest dreams. I am an assurance that their own future as artists and self-determining individuals is not only possible, but also immanent. Ironically, I have had to throw off the advances of many young women who think that I am only a wild and horny old creature, ever ready to party with them and part their burning thighs with my cool tongue. Likewise I have sent the young druggies and celebrity seekers on the road out of here. Usually chasing after the same stupid chicks. What happens when these young people frequent my home is similar to the one that took place when my daughter lived here. We learn from each other, and with each subsequent visit, respect one another more. We are creating a new world of possibilities built on the equality we both acknowledge in the other. This is something that has often been difficult or impossible for them to achieve within the typical family structure from which they came - here we are achieving the higher education that flows from acknowledging another's awareness. I do not hold myself above these kids because of any supposed wisdom I possess over them. I recognize them as artists, musicians, poets, and likewise recognizing that they are communicating with me as clearly as I am with them. Yes, we are learning to share a world that is not made up of young and old perimeters. This is the earth we live on - whether it's been around the mere 6,000 years of the Creationists, or for the billions and billions of years the Scientists theorize. But to believe that there is a difference of dozens of years between us - because me and you are standing a few inches apart - is ludicrous. Or when our hands touch for a moment, and we occupy the same sensation in space and time. Michelangelo's depiction of the creation of Adam on the Sistine ceiling suggests that touch is beyond space/time -- beyond eternity. That there - or here - is no difference between the visible and the invisible, the past and the present, the young and the old. We all exist together at this very moment - only our perceptions of this phenomenon are "old" or "young," and these are the illusions that cast us in stone, rigid and unmovable. When God created Adam from the dust of the earth, it was only a demonstration of Einstein's conversion of Energy into Mass via Light. Like Einstein and others, Michelangelo was able to see the reality of this happening. There is really nothing new under the sun, only a new way of presenting it to our senses. Now the boy who had made the earlier comment was not privy to any of this. So I told him: "Hey dude. this guy is not my age. he's old enough to be my father." Actually we were nearly the same age, however he was from a much older mind-set than I am, appearing so much older in his wrinkled skin. "I don't know this dude from Adam!" The young people who flock here - as well as many of my neighbors who observe my Sunday night gatherings - think that I hang out with young people to the exclusion of everyone else. They do not recognize that I do this only one day out of seven. the traditional day of rest: the day of renewal and regeneration. They do not see me the rest of the week, when I am on my bike cruising the street, or out in front of the house sweeping the sidewalks, or talking with the block captain or laughing with the derelicts that know me well. At such times I am literally plagued by the old and the ageing. "Burkhart." they say to me, "Don't you think you should give some thought to your future? What will you do when it's time to retire? You don't own this house, you don't have any insurance, and you don't even own a car or have a burial plot." They continue to argue by telling me of their great achievements: how they got an education, raised a family, worked for forty years and made provisions for their futures and yes, saved up for retirement. And lo and behold, now they are finally ready to live their lives and their long awaited dreams. "But I have been living my life all along," I tell them. I did not save any money for a future day when I would retire. I retired a long time ago. Instead, I love my work and I spend every penny daily, living the life that most others save for and only anticipate happening in their ripe old ages. Of course this information disturbs the old folks. But it also seems to disturb many of the youth. All right, I'm writing this for the edification of young people. because I believe they are capable of understanding my unorthodox choices to a far greater degree than their biased relatives will give them credit. It seems like the older and wiser someone becomes, the further away from understanding they travel. The ego-less monk Leonard Cohen stated it succinctly after fifty years of pursuing wisdom. "I chased away the Light with my own understanding." But with children it is not really a matter of understanding... because even they understand things at the level they are at in their development. I saw it in my own youth, when it was acceptable to think of the earth as "flat," only to have it replaced by a more correct understanding: "round" when I got to high school. Shit. in college they were going to tell me it was oval. I knew that! The earth is all of this - it's our outlandish understanding of the earth that is not. Really, I can have breakfast with a scientist and discuss a multi-dimensional universe, take lunch with a wino who is only trying to walk a straight line to the liquor store on the corner, hoping not to fall off the edge of the earth, then follow up with dinner in a round and warm orifice like the one old Mother Earth keeps enticing me with - a Wendy's sour cream & chive potato! I love the youth, because like me - and anyone who speaks the truth - they do not have any idea what is going on outside their bedroom at home. In candid conversations, most of them will admit they don't know what's happening. It is the same for all of us: Strip a businessman or woman of their office, and they become the jobless and homeless in an unfamiliar world. Walk down the wrong street on the way to school or work and it is a hellish nightmare or a fantasy filled with strange, unimaginable characters. Children may not yet be able to separate these fantastic visions they have from the hard reality manifesting down some of those streets, but they are ready to go there anyway. They are not sure who they are or what they will find there, but it will not be some worn-out "truth" they were taught in their infancy. It will be their own truth they discover, not the prefabricated combination of half-truths that produced them. When I leave this home of mine - when the landlord dies and the property goes to his children - I'm out of here fast. But to where and what? I don't plan on moving a bunch of furniture to a new house. I'm walking out that door with the first person that proves to be as adventuresome. I'm putting my camera on my back and filling my shopping cart with photos and heading down the yellow line. Or I'm catching a plane past the great hole in America and headed to Amsterdam. or Spain. or. After long spells living at home or in schools, young people are finally putting in their own identities. They are discovering who they are, not whom their parents and teachers think they should be. I like that. That's also my position. I am learning who I am in ever-newer contexts. And like the youth, many of my plans and dreams are untested and probably unrealizable. But I'll find that out, as they will. For this reason, I like young people around me, in preference to the old and dying. It is a greater teaching to watch a child "die" to the old and erroneous ways they were inculcated with, than to witness an old person embroiled in the bitterness and regret their own vain strivings have reduced them to. To watch these old geezers sit back in their accolades, watching from the convenience of their retirement communes their own dying children fight a war for their amusement on TV is an abomination. I am both a child and a parent, but I have never decided which. Looking back, I see that I have never allowed either aspect to rule me. At times, to be with the young is a regenerating experience, sharing the newfound knowledge about ourselves. But most of the time, truer to form, to be with the young is to be incredibly aware of how old I really am. I am undisputedly the "old geezer" in their midst... Appointment: 1228 N. Noble St. (coach house) Chicago, 60622 (773 348-8536)