We are searching for something. All of us. It’s easy to sling about labels like gen y, gen x, boomers, millenials. But half of us are in the “twixt” generation: dates not exactly right for the labels. So what are we looking for? What is the quest? What will keep the twixters engaged?
I think it’s growth. Happiness is really too lofty, unreachable, too ephemeral for us. Tranquility might be it. Like the tranquility felt when you share ideas with friends. And they get it and you can see that their outlook has changed. Maybe they have a little taste of happiness because of your actions or ideas.
But growth, in relationships, in knowledge, in feeling like you’ve made a difference; that’s it. When given a compliment on something that you have invested time and effort, you feel it. You feel needed, relevant, like you’ve helped. Like you have value. And both of you taste the growth and feel happy. For a moment.
All our generations have a “why?” in front of them as they pass through our blink of a lifetime. Why are we here? After that, it’s “what?” What are we going to do about it?
Peace – MD
Thanks for the thoughts, Mark – especially for us “twixters.” I strive for the St. Paul version – “Godliness with contentment is great gain.” Keeps me busy!
Amazing that lately I have been pondering the same idea – my take on it was that we are all trying to accomplish or achieve something. (I expounded on this idea more thoroughly on my blog) I think this applies in particular to those of us in government. Most of us have gotten ourselves into this line of work to try to make a difference.
Mark – on sort of a different note – I really enjoy your writing style. It really makes me stop and think (about my writing style, and also, about whatever you are writing, of course). Thanks for this.
“”Nietzsche’s words, ‘He [or she!] who has a why to live can bear with almost any how [or what!].'”
– Viktor Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning – a truly life-changing book written by a concentration camp survivor [brackets my additions!]
“… have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. Perhaps you do carry within you the possibility of creating and forming, as an especially blessed and pure way of living; train your for that – but take whatever comes, with great trust…”
– Rainer Maria Rilke, Letter Four, “Letters to a Young Poet”
Seen on a church near my house: “Change is certain. Growth is optional.” I really like that, especially in thses times of tremendous change.