“What does your generation think about the state of things?”
The teenager is the understated type. She’s not one to speak much in public but her eyes reveal an active, internal intelligence.
“We don’t expect to live past fifty.”
The comment quiets the room. Heads turn. Eyes flash.
“Really?” I respond. “Why is that?”
The young woman shrugs. “Just look around. The climate is changing. Everyone is arguing. There isn’t much positive news in the world. Something bad like a global epidemic or war or some other social meltdown is bound to happen.”
The teen’s nonchalant acceptance of a bleak future is disarming. “Everyone my age understands it,” she sighs. She clearly believes what she is saying. She clearly isn’t happy that she believes it.
Listen up, everyone! This isn’t acceptable. This cannot be let be. Our young people deserve better from us. At a time when our country’s economy is reasonably strong, when we are not rationing goods and services because of war, we cannot stand idly by while our Centennials experience some of the highest rates of anxiety, depression, and generational negativity in recorded history.
The burden we are placing on our youth is unprecedented. It is unfair. It is unnecessary.
I’m not just another voice of concern regarding the calamity of our contemporary discourse. Quite the contrary. I aim to be a voice of hope. We must be better, yes. But, importantly, we can be better. A more resounding yes. We truly can be better.
We just need to “Stop, Slow, and Go”.
First, let’s stop the blaming. The weight bearing down on our youth is not just a consequence of social media or smart phones. This is not about Republicans, or Democrats, or Independents. The more we blame technology or each other the less we engage individually, as human beings. The less we engage as people the more we acquiesce, to cliched expectation. The more we acquiesce to that expectation the less we are open and able to help, to make a difference. So let’s please stop.
Second, let’s slow things down. We need to slow the pace – of images, of pressure, of the general speed of our time. There is breath within the spaces that open up when we slow down. There is recognition of purpose with that breath. Everyone needs purpose, especially those maturing in our midst. Let’s slow so they can know how important that search is.
Then finally, let’s go forward, together, gradually, with our Centennials, and with our Gen X and Y’ers too. Going together is our best chance of getting somewhere. Looking forward is our best way to see where it is we all feel it is important to go. Without a common sense of where it is we are going, we don’t stand much chance of knowing when it is we’ve arrived. Let’s learn then, with our youth, where it is we should go. Then let’s go.
If you check the statistics, young people have a right to be worried; the average lifespan of Americans has peaked and, in fact, has recently decreased. We would do well, therefore, to listen to their concerns. The young have a right to feel entitled to a more than fifty years of life! We have a duty to help them live as long as we ourselves plan to.
So the next time you might be tempted to join the chorus of critics about the young, or to feel frightened by the trends regarding their health and welfare, try to listen a bit more gently to what it is they are saying. There is amazing wisdom from our teens. If we allow ourselves to hear some of that insight, maybe we can better help them – and ourselves – become more optimistic about our collective future. And then we can translate that optimism into meaningful action.