Where does the good go?

I spent a bit of time driving around in my car yesterday, running errands etc, thinking about all this generational stuff that is bending me and others out of shape. The hardest bit is convincing people who have known me since I was three to see me as a capable adult. But there's more to it.

I remember a conversation I had with an ex-boyfriend shortly after Punky and I got married. Neither of us called. He just happens to be my dear friend's brother and a premonition about these exact situations is the reason I almost stood him up almost ten years ago. Anyway, it was a strange conversation and, for reasons I couldn't explain at the time, I felt compelled to justify why I had gotten married.

I felt, and still feel, that me and my peers had to redefine marriage. Not the boundaries, but the daily bits. Communicate, have fun, push each other to grow. My generation also became the people who got married for the sake of the party, so we're not perfect.

So my thought in the car was this: Why did we stop redefining things at marriage? Why not redefine what it means to be an adult? To be responsible? To be a good citizen? To be a good parent? Why does being concerned with the world, with politics, the environment, children, all of it, have to result in being serious and depressed? Does not being serious and depressed all the time mean I'm an incapable airhead? Is serious and depressed the only way to change the world?

I really hope not. Because I plan to change the world being the silly, goofy, joking, but strong, smart, concerned person I am.