Millenials Move Into The Woods

Standing back looking ahead seeing Gen X move into, while Millennials suddenly become immersed in, REAL LIFE

Ticking clock has caught another generation.

Birthing, climbing the business ladder, entering the social system, life as we "older" generations knew it. 

The first generation to allow themselves to be "influenced" not by parents, families, friends-- by complete strangers who became extended family.

Another generation who worked hard to "stand out", be "unique" & "make a difference".

A smile on my face. We walked your walk, talked your talk.

Can you begin to imagine what you see in 'historical" coverage was actually life as a highly involved, voices raised, first real protesting Generation"labeled  "Baby Boomers"?

A generation who dared to raise their voices as the first large number of people all across the country, large cities to small towns, without technology, willing to be beaten and arrested for long awaited freedom and equal value.

Where's the "Thank You" for your service to the generation who brought forward nondiscrimination, valuing all ages, stages of life, making, changing laws?

Their grandchildren and great grandchildren seem to be focused on blaming or being envious of Boomers who survived, created lives continuing to change and expand quality of life and living.

Move Out Of The Way!  

Not said as Boomers did to discrimination, inequality, denial of basic rights -- against their ability to overcome, to survive and thrive, to accumulate against decades of strife and War.

My husband served in the Air Force Reserves. We were just married and his one weekend a month moved to two and then to every weekend. 

Go to your History sites and see how those Late 60's, Early 70's with demonstrations, burning Cities, day and night vandalism were not as peaceful as proclaimed.

Few "teens" had cars and the "pocket money" to spend and it was exceptional to have a "credit card". 

Wives had to have "permission" of their husbands to get a CC and he could also take it away. 

Or, if she had the courage to get a divorce, as my Mom did from an alcoholic abuser she had to continuously run from to protect herself and me, she'd have her credit card removed and ended up not having "credit" for any use. 

Thankfully she found a couple of rental properties where the owners were compassionate.

I remember all the immunization shots my husband had to have. At least that's what he was told they were. It was a time when there was "high alert" and no long range missiles or jets we now use for border protection. 

The arms race had begun but it takes time and money to escalate when everything possible is being used on foreign soil to protect others -- sound like today?     

To prepare for "when" they had to leave for far away places with strange sounding names. It wasn't an "if" for many as more and more young men stepped up to serve out of high school only to return in a wooden box.

YOU didn't watch classmates run on the football field yesterday and know today they were somewhere running for their lives while trying to stop the advancement of machines killing, maiming and ending lives of families and small children.

Today there are conflicts, some very serious, world threatening, but for many it's "over there" and "over there" and "over there" but NOT OVER HERE.

My cousin, Jim, went to Vietnam returning with memories so vivid he often couldn't sleep. He couldn't attend his wife's funeral and doesn't attend family gatherings. 

Like his Uncles before him, who served in WWII, he "did his duty" but could not completely leave behind the horrors of the battlefields and cities where innocents fell besides those trained to kill the forces that had just attacked small children and families he had witnessed.

Today we seem immune or at least believing "it can't" and 'it won't" happen "here". Others throughout history thought the same way. 

The Woods of Life have beauty and hide atrocities. Each generation responds in ways they believe, for the times, is what is "right" to do. 

Boomers, the ones who fought on battlefields created not of their design, giving time, and many their lives, are now faced with the Battle of Aging --those who remain.

War is all around. Some day, perhaps sooner than we want or expect, this "new" generation or their children, will be called on, expected to protect and defend.

When they return, if they do, will they face a future of being told they don't deserve what they worked so hard to get -- a home of their own, a place of peace of mind, where they could "grow old" having worked so hard to buy, maintain and manage through decades of challenges?

Respect. Honor. Compassion.

We've lost these values and many others believing "ageing" changes who we were, who we became and who we are.

What will we try to take away and from which generation in all the tomorrow's we hope will come?

As your forefathers and their life partners, will you honor or demean, take away or share, tear apart or support. . . 

The woods can be beautiful or dangerous; what is created becomes where we and others, of all types, live ... or not.