Aah.. today one from the heart. From that place of deep sadness and compassion unending for the seemingly always present "generation gap" that our culture has created for us. Yet another paradigm shift we are actively engaging in today.
I find it no minor tragedy, in this culture, that the elders are so alienated from the youth, and a major tragedy that they have such a one sided perception of such a diverse and broad subset of the population. There is so much wisdom, so much knowledge and so many resources that the elderly contain and can offer to the world, and there is just such a huge gap between those who are "retiring" and those who are still active. In a culture that only expresses value for staying "young & beautiful" they are pushed out, and have grown up with the awareness that it was coming and so resigned themselves to it.
And the sad thing to me is that my parent's generation, the 60-70 year olds are so "accostomed" to this way of being, that they are actually fully participating unconsciously, in this isolationism. A lot of them put their parents in nursiing homes, not knowing what else to do, nor having the "time and energy" required to help out or be present, living in different states, etc. So on some weird level, many of them actually participated in the creation of this way and so they fully expect it to be their reality too. Certainly not each individual, there are most definitly exceptions! And I sincerely pray for more of them!
However, it appears that many people in that age group just won't participate in any kind of active productive/positive involvement with the youth, their children or what's really going on in the world. To me, that is a tragedy for our time, especially for those of us in the growing subset of the population who do actually value the wisdom of our elders and would like to have them more involved in our world and daily lives. Interestingly our numbers are growing! Over 30% of the population now, world wide, is concerned about the elderly and WANTS them to be actively involved. This shows me that when we get older, we will probably stay more involved and participate in creative solutions to our world WITH our children. Now there's a concept I am thrilled to support and live to experience!
I am so grateful for the shift coming, and still my heart grieves for the lost generation of elders of whom my parents belong to.
Here's a generation that lived thru some pretty big stuff, huge technology advances, TV, internet, wow, and on a global conflict level they've seen too much war, constant war. They, whether they choose to fully realize it or not, were huge pieces of creating the current crisis that we are involved in on every level. Of course, there is no blame in this, every generation creates some insanity for their children to unravel and comb out, and I am not in any way convinced that there is/was mal intent. People simply do what seems "right" at the time, often not thinking far enough into the future to see the possibilities for devastation.
In their time, money became GOD and we are still living with that. This money obsession, "security" obsession has poisoned the well of loving human relationships deeply. There is little concern, for people like my father, for following the higher good of one's life's purpose, for art, for creativity, for the EXPERIENCE of life: what a silly waste of time... All that seems to matter is the almighty $, insurance, bills, and some like called "security," that supposedly comes from having a high payiing corporate job. The main goal of life is to make as much money as you can, hoarde it and hold on to it at all costs. Many of them survived the depression and are terrified now of being "without." PROGRESS was the name of the game, the big constsant push irrespective to the effects on the earth, to future generations or your own well being.
How old is George Bush? Right in that age group, denying the real situations, focusing ONLY on power, money and a wasted resource that is peaked out and done, leaving the youth of today a pretty HUGE world crisis, on almost every level: energy, food, war, poverty, high land prices, and high taxes.
The American dream is crumbling right before our eyes, and on some level, this elder generation must feel some of the weight of that, whether they choose to acknowledge it or not. They did some good, a lot of good and made headway on some really amazing technologies; and they made a lot of very careless decisions that are now destroying our ecosystems and any possibility of a life like they had as youth where there was still some real untouched nature and clean waters, safe streets, etc.
We are ALL responsible, each one of us at some level, yet I wonder if that generation, the 60-70 year olds, feel the weight of this more than any others as it was they who were really active during these crucial times, they who raised the generation that, in their eyes, atleast according to my father, is a generation wasted. Now that's a burden to bear. To feel even disappointed in your own children must feel horrible as a self reflection. Tragic, truly tragic. And I feel for them, deeply, those who choose to continue to carry that burden into their aging years, especially those who respond to their own creations and children with such bitterness and hostility.
Gratefully, I have met as many elders that are joyful and amazing, yet to see it in my own family touches me and brings me to tears of compassion and sorrow.
Here are my father's exact verbadim words on how he sees the 20-30 year olds, and his one and only daughter:
"As for "you folks" guess you have not seen any of the TV specials or articles reviewing the 20 and 30 year old generations and the challenges they pose to industry gov and military. You are a self centered narcissistic group that some consider an alien life form. You discount things American, and conventional, tend to accept the unconventional right or wrong so long as it is convenient or satisfying and don't have strong personal relationships or work ethics. Rather it's about me, be happy, how great I am, and learn all about me on my blog. Amazes me. Frustrates me. Think it's only me? Watch some of the specials and below are a few lines from some of the articles I've read recently."
And so it is clear to me, the confusion and one sidedness to the above attack. My prayer and intention is to have first, compassion for these elders who are being fed total propaganda by our government run media, who, of course, wants to keep us separate and disconnected from each other. People like my father are not willing to participate with the culture anymore, in his own words, "I'm done, it's your mess." Understandably, he's tired and supposedly has no energy to help the current situation, though there's plenty of energy to complain it seems! LOL... typical!
I just see the need for compassion deeply as there are a lot of angry old people in the world who refuse to consider situations and or subsets of the population truly objectively, but want to believe what is convienet to keep them isolated and angry. We can reach out to these people and share love with them thru our compassioinate listening and exampliar beingness.
Imagine if my father did a search on the good works that the 20-30 year olds are doing: he might find out that it is this group who is working hard to find solutions to the crisis we have, working in groups to plan out ways to grow our food, find alternate fuel sources, help our elders be more assimilated, stop wasting resources, working to help the youth, providing alternatives to drinking and drugs, and getting active in local communities to help foster a more local economy that can actually survive a recession when it comes. He might find that there are far more beings in this subset who are concerned with the welfare of the planet than they are with how pretty they are. He might find that his TV is telling him lies all the time, that in fact the govt is controlling the very information that he is fed... imagine that...??
Or even better, imagine if he actually came and witnessed objectively the life of someone in that age group, like me, his daughter. He would find strong community and personal relationships, a strong committed group of beings who are working to find solutions and not sitting around watching TV all night. He would find intelligent, wise concerned beings who do more than talk, but ACT with conscious consideration and full integrity. He would find beauty, joy and awareness that everything is more than it seems. He certainly would find a picture very different than the one his TV and "articles" are painting for him in his chair in Florida, isolated from the actual real people he's hearing about. He'd find a whole new way of being that is centered around love and truth. And he'd likely still go home thinking he was a failure as a father because I don't have a 401K or a new car and a corporate job. He'd likely have a hard time seeing any value in what I know to be "real" life: Community, love, connection, music and going to bed every night feeling like I'm living a life of meaningfulness.
Again.. the need for compassion. These people don't understand the higher truths of life, at least not totally consciously. Somewhere in there they get it, I really think everyone does, but the programming of years of a way of being, and being "right" is difficult for the conscious mind to deny very deeply, and so it may refuse anything different, particularly as the mind ages it can (but not always) become more inflexible and rigid. And they just weren't gifted the same tools that are available now to us and so again, the call is for compassion. To love them regardless, to honor them regardless.. AND to stand strong as examples of evolution and possibility.
So, I invite us to educate our elders, show them the truth of who we are. Many will refuse to see or acknowledge, they would rather stay angry and feel that they failed. Many will continue to believe the hype, but some, some will come around and see the bigger reality.
Love your elders.
Honor them.
They gave us much wisdom and many lessons to learn from on every level. They have taught us much to continue on with, and MUCH to leave behind and for BOTH we must be grateful.
"
Posts
