Finding Common Ground

           Does every generation take on characteristics of the one before or have certain traits always been entrenched inside of us only to be exacerbated with the passage of time? Age can make folks get cranky; they slow down; they rant, “At my age, I’m going to do what I damn well please.”

Wait! Here’s the point. Is the older generation so different from teenagers or young twenty “somethings”? They were that age once; they’ve simply packed on some years.

“What’s wrong with these kids?”

“What’s the matter with that old fart.”

“The world is going to hell in a hand basket.”

“Adults have screwed up the environment.”

“Kids these days have no respect.”

“That old biddy was so rude to me at the checkout stand.”

“What’s the world coming to?”

“The world needs to change.”

“These days I’m happy just staying at home.”

“Let’s get the hell out of here and party.”

“Need to sit down.”

“Have to get going.”

“Oh, to be young again!”

“I can’t wait to be old enough to drive, to vote, to buy beer, to get the hell out of Dodge.”

            When one thinks about us -- the old, the young, and those in between -- are not all of us minted into the same coin? Yes, old people slow down; they take naps; they stop and smell the roses; they take leisurely walks; they pick up new hobbies, and in lieu of diapering little ones, they pamper their pets. On the other hand, the younger generations are a bundle of energy, until they crash, that is; then they nap or plug in ear buds, listen to music, and veg for hours; they pick up new devices, and instead of feeding Fido, they launch onto social media. But wait! Old folks do that too. So how different are we?

It’s true. At some point life does not have to be a melee of comings and goings as it is when young families are balancing countless commitments and activities. Yet, it often is. How many retirees like to boast, “I’m busier now than I was when I worked full time.” And this leads to my final point.

Look at some of today’s politicians. They are not “spring chickens” as my mother would have declared. Yet they appear to maintain the stamina of some much younger, and like the generations that trail them, they have hopes and aspirations; they look to the future. And how is it that a sizeable number of young people have flocked to the old guy this political cycle? It stumps me that he’s trumped even Trump in this demographic. I am not about to reveal here in this blog who will have my vote in the coming election, but whether one is older, young, or somewhere in the middle when the time comes, do vote. It’s really important to have a say without having to say a word. The validity of that puts us all on common ground.