Former associate at Boies Schiller Elizabeth Wurtzel honed her branding on open wounds and the med - Prozac - to partly heal them. The message of that identity was that pain is a commodity that is quite marketable, a natural derivative of the Oprah era of full disclosure of early trauma. But as Buddhists such as those at the Shambhala Center, New Haven, Connecticut teach: Everything changes.
The new ethos is that of youth managing pain through the old fashioned American work ethic. Last night at a meditation session and lecture on relationships at the Shambhala Center I became tethered to a young man who is in college. He had returned from a six week retreat in upstate New York with Buddhist monks. In return for chopping wood, fixing the property, and cleaning everything, he received wisdom. Suffering had brought him there, so he framed it as a "gift," not a burden. A capitalist like the rest of us, he mused, "Best investment I had ever made." Good in science and information technology, he could become a patent lawyer. Apple and Samsung likely will still be fighting it out in court.
Another former sufferer is Millennial Kate Sirignano. Her family encountered financial difficulties. She decided to pitch in and help by leaving college. The special events and public relations job she had to scramble to get was the platform on which she built her current boutique Image Marketing Consultants. The latter in turn has provided her the wisdom to advise other micro businesses through her coaching service Pasta, Profits & Pearls. Suffering had a great ROI for her also.
What killed off the era of bleeding wounds? That's easy. Everyone started to bleed during The Great Recession. No one wanted to hear that Wurtzel's boo-boos hurt more than their own.
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