mysteryoriley

No, Owen did not die from a bicycle accident.  Two of his recent bicycles disappeared, though.  Last year, when we returned to Sonoma County, he saved up earnings from his job at the 3rd Street Cinemas and bought a bicycle he thought would serve his transportation needs – how to get from his apartment to work with the least effort, and the most efficiency. 

He bought the bicycle he wanted, the one he picked out because it suited his needs and his finances.  That was the bike he rode to work, until one evening when he visited the local Blockbuster video store on a night off.  He, thinking like a person who didn’t want to acknowledge the worst of life, parked his bike just outside the front door of the store.  He already knew the video he wanted to rent, so didn’t bother to lock the bike.  It was a “safe” neighborhood, and thought the three minutes it would take to rent the video was a small enough window of time, that locking the bike was overkill.  It should have been.  But, that small window was enough time for someone to steal his bike.  He rented his video, walked outside, and realized that no one can be trusted.  No one.  He was distraught when he talked with me about the stolen bike.

Owen wanted a cause.  One of the reasons he thought his generation was in such a state of disrepair, was that they had no causes that could attach them to this life in any meaningful way.  School s a farce, our government is too full of politics to be trusted, kids are not being prepared for jobs with any redeeming qualities, and the prevalence of ”beautiful people” propaganda is at an all-time high.  He felt these were the root causes of a sense of hopelessness among his peers.  

Owen often talked about how fortunate my generation was, and how he wished he had been born 30 years earlier.  We had causes like “Question Authority”, Viet Nam, Watergate, Howard Jarvis’ Proposition 13, free speech (gone forever, I’m afraid),  the Civil Rights Act, and political activism.  He felt his generation had nothing to compare.  They don’t.  

When I go to the River, I see what he meant – in living color.  The act of hanging out on a waterfront, drinking alcohol and getting high, is the only inviting activity much of his generation has.  They have no jobs, SSI appears to be the main source of income.  Many of the kids are the children of the victims of Proposition 13; some are the products of two income homes where a young person’s afternoons are spent with television and video games; and some were raised by parents who are more invested in their own careers than their children. 

At Owen’s memorial service, my brother said, “Owen was a 60s activist, born in the 80s.”  True, devastating.  Owen wanted a cause that had social relevance.  Sadly, his cause is more powerful in death, than it was in life.  How many other young people will we lose due to the vapid void of meaning?

The opening scene of Donnie Darko (movie from 2002) depicts a young man lying prone on a road, bicycle off to the shoulder.  Watch the movie, if you are interested in what’s happening with our children.  The signs and symbols in the movie are too closely associated with our family’s history, for us to avoid the relevance.  (Our father, Emmitt’s and mine, died in a commercial airplane crash, for one…just one, of many.  Owen’s aversion to school is another (think “bullies”).  Halloween another…and the list goes on, and on.)

In kindergarten, Owen said to me one morning when he refused to get out of the car, “Mom, children shouldn’t spend this much time away from their families.”  He was five years old.  How does a five-year-old know this?  What did Owen know, that we don’t?

Owen’s bicycle, the orange one, the one he was riding the night he disappeared, is still missing.  Who has it?  Was someone there when he left this life?  Did they steal his bike, his money (his wallet was empty of cash, only identification and phone numbers)?  Were these the same people who stole his backpack, his CD player, his last journal?  We know who stole his cell phone. 

Our children are waiting for the day they feel good.  Are you working for that cause?  No?  Step into the (r)evolution (thanks, LeaKel).  Your kids are depending on you.

Song for the night:  Mad World, Gary Jules

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5MyMOi4LEr4

~ by Linda on November 2, 2007.

Posted in art, bicycles, child loss, children, death, family, friends, grief, Halloween, learning, Life, mothering, music, mystery, parenting, writing
Tags: bicycles, Blockbuster, cause, Donnie Darko, Drew Barrymore, free speech, political activists, possessions, Proposition 13, Question Authority, revolution, social relevance, SSI, videos, Viet Nam, Watergate