From generation to generation.

Generational Differences

“Each generation goes further than the generation preceding it because it stands on the shoulders of that generation.  You will have opportunities beyond any we’ve ever known.”

                                                Ronald Reagan

“We may consider each generation as a distinct nation, with a right, by the will of its majority, to bind themselves, but none to bind the succeeding generation…”

                                                Thomas Jefferson

“We have the power to make this the best generation of mankind in the history of the world or to make it the last.”

                                                John F. Kennedy

            I heard an interview last week with a woman who had written a book about the contributions of each generation.  She said the greatest contribution of our generation, the so called baby-boomers, is feminism---the equalization of the playing field for men and women.  I remembered that when I became a single woman in the early seventies, I had no credit.  My former husband held all the monetary power.  I did not have even a credit card in my name.  My first job as a school teacher paid less than $5,000.00 a year.  Certainly, life has dramatically improved for women in the last forty years. 

When asked about the worst contribution of our generation, the author laid the excesses of this time squarely at our feet.  We are responsible for the greed and disposability of our culture.  We are responsible too for the notion that everyone should hold multiple degrees and live in mansions.  We have instilled in our children the idea that they are entitled to a lifestyle that far exceeds anything that has come before.  We have modeled an unsustainable way of life. 

We, the generation that rebelled against the materialism of our parents, who championed flower-power and the live-off-the-land commune, somehow lost our way.  I’m not suggesting we go back to that or that we beat ourselves up with guilt and shame, but I am suggesting that we get real in the way that we live---that we stop living in a manner that burdens our children and grandchildren with our unrealistic and immoderate lifestyles.  I have seen a small glimmer of change since the economic downturn.  People seem to be reassessing the validity of our consumer driven society.  It is my fervent prayer that we continue in that direction.  We still have an opportunity to influence the next generation for the better.

                                    Keeping the faith,

                                    Jane