It’s Ok. Ask a Boomer. We’re not dead. Not yet. My student and I were walking to the subway early November when suddenly a young man (evidently eavesdropping on our conversation about technology and Boomers) from behind yelled out, “What’s a boomer?”
“Excuse me, a what?” a definite sign of an aging Boomer. Is he serious? Does he really not know?
“Ask your parents … or maybe your grandparents.” I winced with one eyebrow arched while sizing up his age. “It’s a category, a demographic like you’re a Millennial or maybe a Gen Z-er. Got it?”
He nodded, “I had no idea.”
I learned later that he knew. His question was a twist on the meme, “OK Boomer”. It had been making its rounds on the Internet. OK Boomer is slang for dissing out-dated opinions coming from the Baby Boomer generation and older. It’s the opposite of “OK”. I was the one who had no idea.
Here’s a handy reference updated from last year by Mental Floss on who’s a Boomer and who’s not:
- The Silent Generation: Born 1928-1945 (73-91 years old)
- Baby Boomers: Born 1946-1964 (54-73 years old)
- Generation X: Born 1965-1980 (38-54 years old)
- Millennials: Born 1981-1996 (22-38 years old)
- Gen Z – Post-Millennials: Born 1997-Present (0-22 years old)
I despair. This inter-generational warfare and anti-Boomer sentiment can be quite harsh and cruel. Andrew Ferguson, staff writer (also a Boomer) at “The Atlantic” recently published “Everyone Hates the Boomer, OK?” and informed us that while memes come and go quickly, as Boomers we’re still stuck on “OK Boomer”.
Gen Zers decided to have printed T-shirts inscribed with “OKAY BOOMER HAVE A TERRIBLE DAY.” ~ New York Times . More ill will putting our world on tilt. We need to take a step (several steps) back to get some perspective.
Perspective – What the Experts Say
Daniel H. Pink, former Vice-President, Al Gore’s speechwriter, is the author of best-selling business books about motivation and sales. Pink opened his 2016 commencement address to the graduating class of (still Millennials) at Georgetown University with his clever 20-second social experiment on perspective-taking and showed why “as we grow in our career and gain more power, we tend to lose our perspective-taking ability and to keep it in check.”
Stephen R. Covey, author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” on perspective: “Valuing the differences is the essence of synergy – the mental, the emotional, the psychological differences between people. And the key to valuing those differences is to realize that all people see the world, not as it is, but as they are.”
Why Two Perspectives Are Better Than One
We gain more perspective by getting outside our comfort zone, meeting new people, and learning new things. At the same, we amp up our empathy. But there are times when empathy doesn’t factor into the human equation:
- “We just finished our first meeting so you might like to join us for the next one. Well, maybe not as you can see, we’re much younger than you.”
- “She’s been around a long time. Honestly, our ideas are way better. Why doesn’t she just let us take over?”
- Then there is silence in a working group. Every once in awhile, heads pop up from their screens with wide-eyed stares and still not a word is spoken.
Can’t we find some common ground to collaborate and value our differences? Claire Kennedy, Chair of the Governing Council of the University of Toronto in her convocation message at St. Michael’s College this November, “This is the time when the world urgently needs more grace.”
Perspective and Grace
How do we gain more perspective? One way is to get outside your comfort zone. In my previous post, getting outside your comfort zone means overcoming fear, a work-in-progress.
Standing in the queue at the grocery store recently, a Millennial was in front of me. She turned and greeted me. We had met last year at an ideas summit. We ended up comparing notes on swim lessons which left me inspired, having learned a new strategy on how to overcome my fear of water. Her name is “Grace”. The world urgently needs more grace.
Perspective and Kindness
George Sanders teaches creative writing at Syracuse University. His debut novel “Lincoln in the Bardo” won the 2017 Man Booker Prize. In “Congratulations … By the Way – Some thoughts on Kindness” based on his convocation address for the Class of 2013 at Syracuse University, Professor Saunders is haunted by his memory of a new kid in his 7th Grade named “Ellen” and why to this day, he still remembers her. His two “million-dollar questions” were:
- “Why aren’t we kinder?
Apparently, we have these three “built-in confusions”:
- “We’re central to our universe.” Our story is the only story, the only one that matters.
- “We’re separate from the universe.” – There’s “Us” and then the rest of them.
- “We’re permanent.” – You’re going to die but not me.
OK Millennial. OK Boomer.
- “How do we become kinder?”
- “Kindness is hard. … Becoming kinder happens naturally with age. As we get older, we come to see how useless it is to be selfish… We get our butts kicked and people come to the rescue and we’re not that separate, and we don’t want to be. Most people, as they age, become less selfish and more loving.”
OK Boomer. OK Millennial.
To the graduating class of 2013 (still Millennials), George Saunders ended his speech: “Your life is going to be a gradual process of becoming kinder and more loving: Hurry up. Speed it along. Start right now.”
Why? Because the world needs more “Grace”.
