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I think everyone has been at that place where we ask ourselves, "Who am I? Why am I here? What is the purpose for my life?" Have you ever heard of the "Lost Generation"?
The Lost Generation were born between 1883 and 1900, just after the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Literacy was more widespread and civilization was changing, even though families still remained strict in social values. It is said that World War I, the war to end all wars, was the defining moment of their lives. Women had more freedom and the Roaring Twenties had deep impact on cultural changes. This also is the generation that lived through the Spanish Flu Pandemic and the Great Depression. Then they watched their sons go off to war, World War II.
You may be familiar with names like Gertrude Stein, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Eliot, John Steinbeck who wrote of the times they were living in, times that sound so familiar in 2022, which is why I offer this brief history lesson to you at this time. The Lost Generation seems to compare to these times we are living in ... uncertainty, not sure of the direction we are, or should, be going. "Languishing" is the term we hear today.
One of my daughters, when she was a teenager, was looking for something to read. I handed her Steinbeck's The Sun Also Rises. She has said all she remembers is they were a lot of alcoholics with nothing better to do. I looked deeper than that, to the soul and the despair of a world that was changing rapidly and they didn't know what the purpose of life - the purposes of their own lives - were.
I'll leave you to study the Lost Generation and the troubling times they lived following World War I. There may be clues for you, comparisons you can make that will make for your better understanding of these times modern society is struggling through, some struggling more than others, or perhaps in different ways.
Personally, as a woman of faith, my life makes no sense at all without my faith, my belief system, my relationship with God. (You don't have to agree with me.) Every day I see or hear about people who have no hope, who don't believe in anything, are anxious and depressed, and my faith is confirmed for me.
Do you know who you are? Why you are? What your purpose in life is? If you do, you are very fortunate, indeed, because many do not. But you can begin the journey to discover the answers if you're willing to do the work you need to do.
Your life purposes are those things that give you a reason to set your feet on the floor each morning. For some, it is the job they go to, the passion for the job ... like helping families recover who they are, why they are, what their life purposes are. Those rough bumps in the road, the most difficult challenges we ever face, also help us to discover our life purposes.
Look at the decisions you have made in your life. Why did you make those choices? What are your goals and how did you come to recognize them? Why do you behave the way you do? Do you have a sense of direction - you know where you want to go and how you want to get there? From where did it come? What do you need to achieve those goals, to feel fulfilled, for a greater high than alcohol or any other drug can give you?
Everyone needs a purpose. This is a challenge for you to find yours.
Family Recovery Center offers mental health services as well as addiction services. The goal is for the health and well-being of all. For more information about the education, prevention and treatment programs for substance abuse and related behavioral issues, contact the agency at 964 N. Market St., Lisbon; phone, 330-424-1468; or email, info@familyrecovery.org. Visit the website at familyrecovery.org. FRC is funded in part by the Columbiana County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.