A thought occurred to me as I read an essay collection by Joan Didion, that many of the authors, celebrities, and the myriad of people I admire are significantly older than me. As in one or two generations older than me. In America, there seems to be a negative gap between baby boomers and millennials. Millennials call baby boomers out of touch, while, conversely, millennials are labeled entitled and spoiled. I find myself indignant in the face of labels such as "entitled" and "spoiled", but also conflicted. This is an attempt to reconcile the generational gap.
The essayist, Joan Didion; actor and science communication activist, Alan Alda; writer and philosopher, Robert Fulghum; and finally, author and lay theologian, C.S. Lewis, are just a handful of prominent people that influence me personally and as a writer through their body of work. Their birth years respectively are: 1934, 1936, 1937, and 1898. Although, these people were born before the baby boom, this is an accurate illustration of how influential the wisdom of the previous generation and the one before, is on me. This doesn't include, of course, my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles that also have a heavy influence on me. While these famous people have influenced my academic, spiritual, and intellectual growth, my older family members taught me, in addition to investing in all of these areas as well, how to read, hold a spoon, and fold a shirt. All of these skills have taught me how to live in society.
Amid all of the whining about the backward and "out of touch" behavior of the Silent Generation and Baby Boomer Generation, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for investing your time and energy into a body of work that has touched me deeply, that I will pass down to my kids one day. Thank you Silent Generation and Baby Boomers for encouraging my generation to think deeply and love widely. Your generations lived through some of the most volatile periods of this country's history: The Great Depression, World War II, the Korean Conflict/The Cold War, the drug culture and upheavals of the sixties and seventies, and the Vietnam War--those are just the conflicts! Improved race relations/equality through the Civil Rights Movement, the moon landing, the discovery of the structure of DNA, the Polio vaccine, and the greatest invention/innovation of all: the microwave, were conceptualized before my time! It blows my mind! It is inspiration to me to go further and be fearless. To my family, I love you. Thank you for teaching me to think critically, for influencing my taste in music, and for loving me always, even when I'm unlovable. Thank you for reading to me as a child, for making my favorite meals, for humbling me.
We must realize that even though there are economic and social problems that stretch back generations, we can't just pin these problems on individual people from previous generations because "they're the ones who raised us." This reasoning is simple and not based in critical thinking. The truth is the problems that we face today are problems that have plagued this nation from the beginning of time. If we want to fix these issues, we must come together and surge forward with hope, not look back in despair. The same goes for the Baby Boomers and Silent Generation'ers: It is not productive to minimize the anxiety of millennials regarding healthcare, education, and the job market. While there are entitled young people, most of us are just trying to figure adulthood out. I can't speak for everyone, but adulthood scares me. I'm sure it's a scary experience for you all, too. We are the current generation of movers and shakers, give us a chance. We just need to recognize our differences and try to understand them.
We need each other. Let's stop bickering.
