The Generation Gap
Ah, the good old days. My grandmother longs for them. My mother longs for them. Now I long for them.
My grandmother speaks fondly of USO dances, roller-skating carhops and smoking in the movie theatre.
I can't even imagine.
My mother yearns for the days of rock 'n' roll, boys in tight jeans and lots of fringe.
I'll never understand.
My students wear pajamas to school and shirts that advertise their porn star status.
Has the world gone mad?
What happened to the innocence of the Smurfs? What happened to video game violence that involved stomping moving mushrooms? What happened to dreams of flying cars and fancy-shmancy resorts on Mars? These things are gone, like so much smoke in the wind. Why can't I have my flying car?
I look at my four-month-old son and wonder what his world will be like. When I was his age no one had a microwave or VCR. Rotary phones were still common. Home PCs were unheard of. Technological advances are being made at an almost alarming rate, making it impossible for me to even begin to imagine what the landscape of daily life will look like in 10, 15 or 30 years. Maybe I'll just plug a USB port into the back of his head and wait for the computers to raise him.
Each generation has knowledge that it knows deep down in the soul. No other generation can feel the same energy and raw emotions that crackle through the air as history takes form. Watching documentaries and reading historical texts can't explain the sheer joy and terror that come from actually living through a chain of unfolding events. No other generation can understand the world quite the way your generation does--after all, the generations before and the generations after have lives that are informed by more or less experiences than your generation has had. The soul knowledge is different for each generation and no amount of study can change that.
Despite my being aware of the generation gap, teens today still manage to shock me. Last month I was running along on a gym elliptical machine, watching a very old "Friends" re-run. The 15-year-old cheerleader on the machine next to me was completely caught up in Ross and Rachel's first break-up. "They get back together, right?" She asked me, as the fight wore on through the night.
Wow. I had no idea there were people who hadn't lived that agony while it was happening.
This issue of Mosaic Minds brings you stories of generation gaps of all kinds. From older husbands to younger kids just wanting to grow up, overbearing grandmothers and a connection with the past--we've got all sorts of gaps.