Neither the decade of our birth nor the level we belong to in our family tree, but our thoughts and actions decide which generation we belong to.
A lot of times I get to here this "old generation". Usually its heard while it's being said to older people. A lot of questions keep coming to me every time this phrase comes to my mind. Does the age really indicate the generation a person belongs to? Can the age or the decade of a person's birth confirm to which generation he or she belongs to? Or is it that a person's thoughts let the others know the generation that he belongs to? And the actions, are they the ones that actually confirm the generation a person belongs to? And so on. But mainly these. Here I sit on a weekend's day to scribble down my views and the answer that I believe is right for the streak of questions mentioned above.
Let's take a case of two people who hail from one family, whose age difference is two years, but are from different levels of their family tree. I.e. for in general terminology, two generations. The elder of them is obviously made feel that he is older than the other person by age and also by relation. And by relation, a lot of times he is made believed that he is from an earlier generation when compared to the person who is younger to him by just couple of years. The younger person, on the other hand, is made feel younger than he actually is and is also made believed that he hails from the next generation of the family. Now these two people, since their age difference is too small, go through the education more or less together, go through various other phases of their lives as they come, at a relatively same time. Over a period of time with the respective advancements in their lives, they develop their own thoughts, ideologies, and friend groups. After a few years, on one fine day, when these people are analysed independently by their behavioral and thinking pattern, the following facts turn up.
The elder one behaves and thinks similar to the people who hail from the same level of their family tree. And the younger one behaves and thinks more or less similar to the people who hail from his level of their family tree.
The above is one case and the result of which might or might not be applicable for all similar cases. Nonetheless, I believe it happens the same way in most of the cases. With the deeply connected family systems, we tend to develop ourselves more closer to the people who belong to our level in our family trees. Our thoughts and actions usually get matched with the people belong to our level by relation, provided the age gap is not too far. But is it rightly happening? Is this a right situation to be in? Is that a right way to bring up the generations? I think no. A big 'no'.
Its not our level in the family tree that can let us know how to think or what to do. It's not the decade of our birth that decides to which generation we belong to. It's actually what we think and do can only define the generation that we belong to. And what we think and what we do have got a lot to do with the way we are brought up and the way we have been encouraged to think. Since the brought ups are different, since the situations have been different for all of us, we think differently.
Some of us think backward, some of us think forward. Some think beyond the reality and some hardly understand the reality. Some of us use the technology and some of us struggle to do every task all by ourselves. Some of us think new, some of us like the old. Some of us are practical and some of us get stuck with the theory. Some of us get used to the way we live and some of us keep realizing the dreams with never quit attitude. Well, all these cannot happen at all the times with any person, we keep changing with time, with situation. We behave differently, think differently from situation to situation depending upon a lot of factors. What makes people get segregated in terms of generations? It's they way we are. The way we think. The way we do. Not the age, for sure. That's the reason why at times we come across few people who do not seem to belong to the generation of their age. They either appear a generation ahead or one before.
Brought up indeed has a lot impact on every one of us. Situations to matter to all of us and make us do that we do. But apart from these two, the strong will to develop ourselves time to time, update our selves time to time, think beyond the social and all other barriers can make us cross the generation gap. Let's take the same example given above. If the elder one gets himself accustomed with the latest trends and exhibits a behavior that's more rational, he can cross the generation gap. And if the younger one for some reason, starts behaving and thinking a lot backward, then he might appear to have come from a generation before! This is quite possible and practical.
All that we need to do is to be contemporary in our thoughts and actions. Or may be more than contemporary. Being contemporary does not mean to do what's everyone around is doing. Its about following the basics to the core and maintaining the values in everything. One must all the time satisfy the needs of the people around him, and along with that one must be rational in his thought process, must update himself about the advancements the world is moving ahead with. And must believe that what's happening is happening for betterment and in case any hazardous is happening, the same must be confronted. None of us alone cannot do all this on our own. We all need teams and we must set up our own teams, along with neighbors, friends, colleagues and strangers at times if required etc.
Everything is possible so is overcoming the generation gap and so is the attitude to decide the generation that we belong to. Neither the decade of our birth nor the level we belong to in our family tree, but our thoughts and actions decide which generation we belong to.
