Bridging the Generation Gap

The words of Zoe Berry got me thinking about my own strong reaction to the OK Boomer trend, in which the younger generation calls out the boomer generation for failing to solve the world’s problems and leaving a big mess instead. I chafed at the harshness of the OK Booomer message although, as I wrote earlier, it made me reconsider whether boomers had done enough.

Both Zoe and fellow writer Julia E. Hubbel touched on the heart of the matter: we don’t need to break generations into rival tribes. In fact, it hurts us more than we realize.

Tribal rivalries are already pulling apart the threads that bind us as Americans; we don’t need another reason to blame each other for the chaos.

Let’s think instead of how we can bridge our differences, get to know one another, provide the human connection that brings meaning to life.

“What we should be doing is engaging in open, non-threatening conversations with people having a range of opinions. If you demonstrate genuine interest in the reasons for dearly held opinions you can learn a lot.”(Zoe Berry)

In other words, you have to have an open attitude to get a conversation started.

I was disturbed recently when my college-student son told me that a discussion came up in one of his classes about what students thought of old people.