I saw Tony, the movie about Anthony Bourdain’s early years, a few weeks ago. It really captured the era so well I could almost taste the oysters and smell the salty air of Cape Cod. But it was more than that - it was the banter and the brawling - the clanking of the restaurant plates as they hit the counter of the kitchen window, the exhilaration and disappointment of chasing the promise of something better - a free fall into self-discovery with no guarantee of a job or a girl.
You could attribute that to youth but how many young people are willing to do the same today? We have tamed them prepped them and scared them into paralysis - strapped them in, where every move needs to be calculated and underwritten by an insurance agent because every misstep like a drunk photo at a party or choosing the wrong major can cost them.
Between that, the threat of AI usurping their future and climate change melting their dreams, it’s no wonder why some of them have chosen to take gap years as if they could or should return to something that has already failed them. So off they go to teach English in Korea or study art in Paris. Whatever their trajectory Action’s song, Brain on the movie’s soundtrack is a good reminder to all: “Take your brain, it’s time to go / And you don’t have long, you know.”
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