On my mind today are the Millennials. I was up with them all night last night, kinda sorta, and woke up with them today.
People attach all kinds of labels to this generation. I can't for the life of me figure out why they bother, except maybe that we Boomers are big on labels. I've seen a lot of the data, a lot of the 'studies', a lot of the analysis about this generation. The research has its place, and the labels happen for a reason ... even so, labels don't really do a whole lot of good. As my daughters tell me, 'It is what it is, Mom.'
Being as I'm a Boomer, I'm going to go ahead and use the 'Millennials' label, just because I want to.
The Millennials certainly don't care. I doubt they even realize that labels might be important to some people. From what I've seen, this batch of young people honestly doesn't even recognize the differences we Boomers look for when we're assigning our labels. I think Millennials might be color-blind, and gender-blind, and status-blind, and (thankfully, from my point of view) age-blind. A lot of the things that are so all-fired important to Boomers flat out do not matter to Millennials. Boomers look at that; they see it as a 'bad thing'. If Boomers acted the way Millennials do they would, by their own standards, be far off from the ideals they hold dear.
But Millennials do not really give a rat's hind end about the standards of the Boomers. They aren't bound by them. They aren't even really aware of them. The Boomers stand back shaking their heads, completely unaware that Millennials have their own set of standards. They do not have to do things the same way the Boomers did. They do not want to do things that way (it hasn't worked too well in a lot of ways anyhow, you have to admit). It's not quite a total lack of respect for an older generation; it's more like a confident respect for their own selves. Call it arrogance; that's okay. It's what we brought them up into, after all.
*smiling*
Millennials, so I hear, are 'late bloomers' - supposedly a lot of them are, anyway ... I myself haven't see that but if it is indeed true, so be it. Their peers will handle that problem when the time comes, I do believe.
At any rate, thinking about what we can expect from the Millennials is a good way to spend a hazy smoky dim-skied sort of day.
The day itself brings with it thoughts of the Millennials. The smoke is pouring down out of Canada from the raging Alberta forest fires. I expect the young folks I'm thinking about on this day will do something about what causes those fires.
Contrary to what some Boomers may believe, I don't think our Millennials are the least bit stupid. Nor do I consider them any more selfish than anyone else. Nor do I stick the 'entitled' label on them. They're ... how can I say this? ... seeing things from their own perspective just like everyone else.
And just what exactly are they seeing?
A lot of what they have to look at isn't all that pretty.
They don't like what they're seeing any more than the rest of us do.
The difference is that they're the ones who are going to have to change it.
And they will.
I do expect our Millennials to reverse a lot of the choices we as Boomers have made. Most of it I not only don't have a problem with but enthusiastically applaud. And no I don't expect them to care that I'm rooting for them. They don't need me, or anyone else, rooting for them. Millennials aren't going to even hear either our hoots or our applause. They've got other things on their minds, and are busy doing said things.
No, I'm not talking about taking selfies or lounging on their parents' couches.
I'm talking about the level of communication among them represented by those selfies. It is not the same sort of in person interpersonal communication we as Boomers so heartily approve of, but it is highly effective and efficient, which we tend to ignore while we're criticizing them for it.
When the time comes, they'll use those communication skills to make the changes they want for the world they're going to have to live in, and that their children will have to live in.
They'll use technology to protect and preserve, and to heal, their world - watch them.
Because you know what?
Millennials care.
Deeply.
Not necessarily in ways or about things Boomers can easily wrap their heads around, but you better believe that yes they do indeed care about their world.
At the moment it's the Canadian forest fires that come to mind. It will be the Millennials who figure out how to eliminate or minimize that threat - by whatever means their creative minds and strong selves can come up with. Maybe they'll ensure proper care-taking of the forests of the world. Maybe they'll be the ones who will see to the re-foresting of Earth. Maybe they'll figure out a way to be certain vulnerable areas have sufficient fire-fighting resources (water supplies, transportation, prevention, yada yada ... how am I supposed to know, I'm not a Millennial). Maybe they'll be the ones who will be able to produce rain when needed, who knows? They don't want the world they're going to give to their children to go up in smoke.
Because natural disasters are on my mind from the research I've been doing for a book, I expect the Millennials to safely vent volcanoes. I expect them to not only safely vent them but to put all that vented energy to a productive use. They don't want the world they live in and that their children will inherit covered with ash and poisonous fumes.
I expect them to come up with a way to relieve pressures within Earth herself so that the movement of the tectonic plates can happen without danger to anyone up top. Those plates have to be able to move and flex, but the Millennials aren't going to be having a lot of patience with earthquakes. An ounce of prevention, you know. They'll figure it out, watch them.
I expect them to explore the deepest reaches of the waters of Earth, to learn what's going on down there, to respect what they find, and to do their utmost to protect and preserve that too. Having the waters of Earth disturbed is not going to fit in with the plans they have for themselves and their children, if you're looking at it from the 'they're selfish' perspective, which I am not. They might want safe shores for personal reasons but they're also looking out for the welfare of the sea folk, the ecological balance of the whole of Earth.
I expect them to produce Sky Guards to protect themselves from threats coming from 'up there out there'. I also expect them to get their backsides, at least some of them, off of Earth and start pioneering 'out there up there'.
I do not expect them to do any of this stuff out of any sense of true 'altruism', not at first. I suspect at least part of their motivation is likely to be rooted in anger at us Boomers, and a 'this is how you do it!' kind of attitude. I don't care why they do it, so long as it gets done. They'll find their sense of others as they go along, even if said others are only each other. Says a Boomer, in a kind of snarky Boomer sort of voice. Millennials have already, I think, more of a sense of being truly connected to others than any of the rest of us.
If it's true what people say about them, they'll do what they do for purely selfish reasons. And the people who are saying that act like it's a bad thing, as though they themselves haven't created this situation (as a species, as a Boomer generation) out of pure selfishness themselves. Humankind is inherently self-oriented, folks. Cope as best you can. We don't do anything unless we're likely to get something good for our own selves out of it, even if it's only being able to say 'I told you so' or to pat ourselves on the back.
Except, apparently, for the Millennials who could not possibly care less about telling anybody so or patting themselves on the back.
They are a paradox, a conundrum to me as a Boomer. When I find myself thinking of, or referring to, them as 'thumbing their noses' at Boomers it's because that's what we would do. When I think they're angry at us, it's not because they are; it's because we deserve their anger. In reality, I doubt they bother being mad about much of anything.
I expect they'll look for and find alternatives that we the Boomers, and previous generations, have been ignoring for way too long.
I expect they'll look for and find - and put to use - medical remedies we've long been bemoaning the 'absence' of. They'll look everywhere, not just in test tubes. They've got the technology to do whatever they put their minds to. The technology we gripe about dominating their lives is going to save their lives, and prolong them. If they look for answers because they ('selfishly') want to have longer and stronger lives, it's nothing but sour grapes on our part if we whine about it. They won't turn up their noses at things that work, no matter how 'old' they might be, or how 'experimental'.
I expect the American Millennials to take a good long hard look at every last law we've got on every last book in the United States. I expect them to bloody well study and know their own Constitution inside out, upside down, and every which way from Tuesday - and to take each and every one of our laws straight to the Constitution to make sure it fits the way it's supposed to. I expect them to eliminate the ones that do not fit.
Yes. I do expect it. Not from all of them, of course, but Millennials are surprisingly picky about the strangest things. They'll get a bee in their bonnet and start doing this, on a Local level, then a State level, and then they'll tackle the Federal laws. Some will want to go straight for the Feds but they'll be reined in by their peers who are going to put their picky minds to good use and do things in a way that makes sense to them.
Of course, not being a Millennial myself I can't vouch for the way their collective mind works, but that's the impression I've gotten from the generation at large. Some will want to strike hot and hard and fast and make a whole new thing; the majority will take their own sweet time getting around to bigger things while they unobtrusively tend to whatever they want. The sweet thing about this one is that it can all be done electronically - all the laws are public and so is the Constitution.
The Boomers could have done this their own selves but most of us aren't nearly as adept with electronics and communication as the Millennials are. And we are set in our ways, generally speaking. We've all but given up hope of being able to make any constructive changes (which is just as well, considering some of the changes we've made haven't exactly been all that constructive). What the Millennials will just up and do for no good reason except that they feel like it, we'd debate to death.
I expect the Millennials to make the switch from fossil fuels to 'natural resources' any second now. They're only just getting started; we have to give them maybe five or six minutes here you know. Unless they get the atmosphere of Earth cleaned up they're going to have a long hard haul. So they'll likely start there, while they're developing stuff to maximize solar power, and the wind and water they've got to work with. From their perspective, they've got the chore of taking out the trash generated by others. When they ban the use of plastics for anything except the most vitally needed things until they can come up with viable replacements, I for one will celebrate.
At any rate, the Millennials have everything they need to make all of the above happen, plus a whole lot more. They've got time to learn and to plan and to implement - the rest of their lives are liable to be longer than any previous generation.
That they'll be building on what has been provided to them is a given they might not choose to recognize. And that's okay too.
The Millennials are an odd lot, from the perspective of the Boomers. They will save the world out of sheer want-to, and never think twice about it as they go along. If we wind up viewing them as the heroes they are, they'll look at us like they have no idea in this world what we're going on about.
On the other hand, there's another little oddity I've noticed about the Millennials. They like superheroes. They like the old-fashioned superheroes of comic books, for starters. It seems a strange proclivity for a generation who grew up on reality shows and who spend their lives electronically connected. There's something lurking in them that responds to 'bigger-than-life' heroes.
That they themselves are the living embodiment of what the word 'superhero' means is nothing that would ever even cross their collective mind. They do not care how any of us view them. They just want what they want. As they come to the realization that they're going to have to do it themselves, they'll (maybe, IMO they should) whine and yap about how they shouldn't have to be the ones doing all this stuff, (maybe, IMO they should) give the Boomers dirty looks, and then they'll do what they have to do when they have to do it. Because somebody has to, you know. And the Millennials are going to soon realize that they themselves are the biggest and strongest 'somebody' around.
The Boomers will watch as the Millennials go about doing what needs doing in such a nonchalant lackadaisical way that they don't look like they're even doing anything at all, let alone saving the world.
The Boomers will shake their collective head and grumble about what the world is coming to when they're expected to remember to take along their cloth bags when they go grocery shopping. What are they going to do when Millennial medical professionals give them a prescription that they have to take to the local grocery store instead of a pharmacy, and then take what they buy there on home to make their own medicine for a sinus infection or bronchitis - instead of giving them pharmaceuticals? They'll moan and groan and long for the good old days - and be totally shocked when the medicine they made themselves actually works, quickly, without nasty side effects except maybe garlic breath for a day or two. Feeling stressed? Can't sleep? Here's your prescription (weather dependent of course): open a window at dawn and at dusk so you can actually hear the birds singing out there. Sit and listen to them for a while. What! No sleeping pills?
I expect the Millennials will eventually migrate out from the cities and the suburbs. Yeah I know; that sounds really weird but I still expect it to happen. They'll move into dead little towns and revitalize them, create their own, or at the very least bring back a sense of community in their own neighborhoods.
Sounds bass-ackward from what we ought to expect from a generation linked electronically to their world, doesn't it? They don't exactly come across as community-oriented.
Don't they?
Have they not been creating their own variety of 'community' via electronics for the entirety of their lives? Don't tell me they don't want or need human interaction. That's what they're all about. Granted, the scale and style is a lot different from anything the Boomers can understand - but the Millennials are using their technology for what main purpose? Communication. Reaching out. Interacting with others. Connecting.
See the thing is - and this is for the Boomers - you don't give someone a gift and then try to tell them what they have to do with it.
One of my daughters made that point to me just last week. Some years ago I had wanted to give her an antique dresser that she wanted, but told her she couldn't refinish it. So she didn't take it. When I offered it this time, and she told me it was going to get refinished, I didn't argue the point. I might be old but I can still learn a thing or two or three. Millennials don't particularly care a whole lot about whether or not something loses its original varnish or its 'value' as an antique resting in part on that 'distressed' look. Distress isn't a positive word in the vocabulary of Millennials. So off the antique dresser goes, to a new generation and a makeover that will likely do it a world of good.
She's a Millennial. I'm a Boomer. The more I don't expect her to see things from my perspective the more impressed I am with the way she sees things and the steps she takes to make her world better. The same goes for all four of my Millennial daughters. And they are not exceptions. The Millennials I've known from my work are the same. The friends and colleagues of my daughters are the same. The ones I know on line or from random meetings here and there and everywhere are the same.
They don't see things the same way we Boomers see them - they live in a different world, almost a parallel world if you want to go with a science-fiction kind of thing. Our Boomer world is here, alive and kicking, but so is the world the Millennials live in ... and they're completely different worlds in a lot of ways.
Here's another oddity about the Millennials. For a generation noted for electronics, the Millennials (at least the ones I know) are ardent about nature.
They plant gardens, and trees, and flowers. They recycle. They go fishing and hope their cell phones don't fall in the lake. They bike and blade and run. They can be fanatics about what's going into their bodies. They are blending the two worlds they live in, taking the best of the old and putting it together with the best of the new. And they share it as they go along, because they can. They tend to try to take good care of themselves, if only because they are such public figures and want to look good for the camera.
Their outlook is not the least bit wrong and I watch them quietly from the sidelines and smile. They have no idea of the magic they are creating. Not a clue.
They just do what they do, you see. They do what they want to do. Luckily for us, it seems what they want to do is what we've tried to instill in them from infancy on - they just process things differently than we expected them to, and go about doing what they do in their own way.
That might or might not make any sense to us, but as they come into their adult years we're going to be seeing a lot more of them 'doing what they do'. If we disagree with them, they'll probably listen fairly politely to what we have to say and then just keep on doing what they do in their own way. Because that's what they do.
It's who they are, the Millennials.
Without making any kind of fuss about it, they are already changing their (and our) world for the better.
So, while some might be as 'bad' as people say they are, we'd be better off paying attention to what the Millennials as a generation are telling us without ever really saying a word about it. While they're busy checking their phones they're equally busy building communications networks that are going to pack a good solid punch when they're needed.
The Millennials are also just taking care of business in their own imitable way ... I think our Millennials have a very long collective fuse is what I think. They don't seem to get too bent out of shape about too many things that Boomers have hissy fits about.
On the other hand, injustice or abuse or a threat to what they want for themselves and their children are likely to kindle flames in their eyes. It might take a lot to make a Millennial mad, but ... really ... you don't want to go there. They are a force to be reckoned with even when they're just doing what they do. Their numbers alone assure that nobody's likely to underestimate the power they wield. That they're so easy-going about most things might make someone think they are unaware of their own power, or don't know how to wield it. Woe to such a person. I kid you not.
They can go from Clark Kent to Superman in the blink of an eye.
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