Disappointment and Envy Are Not Good Zen

Sometimes I have to correct myself from “millennial bashing” out of envy.  I see so much that could be done in the world to make it better for more people, and I envy the time that millennials and GenZers  have to make a difference.    Not that I am old and decrepit, but as you age, choosing your battles is more important if you are wanting to see the fruits of your labors. My mother died when I was just beginning to understand the difference between “accepting the things you cannot change, changing the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference”, and I did not have the time to ask her.  My dad understood that “difference” was something that had to be learned, not taught, and he did not mess up our relationship with advice that would not be followed.

What bothers my generation will in all likelihood not bother the next generation.  They will choose different battles than the ones we would choose for them.  Technology will bring them new, more potent weapons in the battles against pollution, climate change, adequate nutritious food supply, etc., and the challenges they will face are issues beyond my current knowledge and understanding.

There are universal issues where we can use our intelligence to try to understand that should concern all ages.  Equality, equity, fairness. 

I have visited the National Museum of African American History and Culture 3 times since it opened.  Symbolically, the exhibit chronologically starts at the bottom of the building and goes up.  I still spend most of my time on the lowest 3 levels trying to understand more deeply how the African American experience in the United States began and why it is so hard for us to see our mistakes as a nation and as individuals whose ancestors benefitted from the slave culture that built the profit driven culture that still drives our country today.  

I worked in the poverty arena for the last 15 years of my career.  I am struck by the irony of grocery shoppers incensed by a slightly out of date can of soup which is still perfectly safe to consume who do not have a problem with children who don’t always have enough to eat and are more at risk to any disease because of it attending understaffed schools where mold may be present and who go home to a house which may or may not have functioning utilities.  Rather than put in the sweat equity to work to create a dynamic public education system where so much more is learned than reading and writing, parents send children to private schools where equality and equity mingle with charity as part of the public conscience not as an investment in equal opportunity for all. 

Science and technology may buy us time with environment and global warming issues, but time is running out on how communities, cities, counties, states and our country make changes to improve the human experience for everyone.