As if times weren’t hard enough, here we have generations taking swings at each other.

“It’s your fault the world’s the way it is! You baby boomers have taken the world to the eve of destruction!”

“What do you care, narcissist? You’re so buried in your cell phone and taking selfies with your duck face that you don’t notice that you’re 25 and still living in the family basement!”

Ah, you’ve simply got to love these diatribes that do…well…nothing at all.

What has become most clear to me in the past few years is that people have stopped working together. It’s so much more fun to have a picture on a dart board and aim for bullseyes than to actually do something proactive.

When you condemn an entire generation, you’re condemning even those who have done or who are trying to do good. Condemnations serve nothing at all.

When I was a kid, no one put political signs on their front yards. Politics didn’t ruin relationships. I think people might have been more civilized in their behaviors in that regard.

I was a late in life kid, and my dad was a member of what’s termed The Greatest Generation. As I remember him, because I lost him when I was 11, he was a fair man treating people of all colors well. He was my Atticus Finch. He was a teacher, a professor, a decent man. He was a musician who thrived in music.

Music is without color and I think, perhaps naively because I have nothing except a very young memory to base it on, my dad viewed anyone who loved music as an equal without color.

I look back, knowing I saw things through a child’s eyes but also knowing that it was a different world. He was a kind man who taught students of color–fairly.

Fences

Strangely, fences have changed too. When I was a kid, people put the nice sides of their fences facing outwards. They were not baby boomers. My immediate neighbor has the ugly side of her fence facing outward. She’s a baby boomer. Is that a sign that baby boomers are selfish? Inward?

When did that happen? When did home owners start putting the ugly side of their fence outwards?

I have a board-on-board, which means it looks the same on both sides…and keeps Scout and Sophie safe. That’s what’s important to me.

Experiment

While we are always quick to point fingers, the one thing that I have noticed that we humans do is “experiment” in the name of progress without doing enough research to prove that outcomes are safe. It’s a human thing, not a generation thing.

How many times have I’ve read history books and frowned over the recklessness of humans? Oh, let’s test an atomic weapon. We don’t know what it will do, but you know, what the hell? Let’s get a bunch of poor (economically) women to pain watch dials with luminous paint. Oh, my, they get radiation poisoning? Let’s cover it up! Coal mining. DDT. Nicotine. Asbestos. Aerosol cans. The list, if you look, goes on and on.

But it goes on and on from the beginning. We human beings simply believe we are above it all and it goes way beyond generations. We just think we are superior. Our track record says otherwise. All types of creatures are dying because of us. We have not done a very good job at being stewards of the earth.

Let’s face it. 9 out of 10 people probably don’t understand what it means to be a steward. They don’t care. Carpe Diem. Hedonism. Live and let die. Just let me have my slice of the cake. I call myself pro-life but don’t march against war or guns. Some creature bothers me or the little space of land I live on, kill it. Kill it. You’d be amazed at how often I read that on my little suburban neighborhood network. Kill it.

Kill it.

If karma exists, what would be the end result?

No, my dear boomers and millenials. Finger pointing does nothing except give you muscular fingers. People must come together to find solutions. Blame doesn’t work. It won’t work. The only thing that will work is realizing that there is a global problem and joining forces to make things better.

Put down your bleeding cell phones and take a look around you for at least 10 minutes and notice things. Notice the birds, the flowers, the trees, your neighbor…hey, that cute guy. Join in the world. The world is yours and your children’s. It’s about time you noticed it. Stop talking. Stop reading. Just stop. Pay attention. If you can. I promise you may be surprised by what you see and hear.

And so, I shall play you a hippie song…just because:

ps This song was written by member of the greatest generation and not baby boomers…not that that means anything. 😉