FROM B TO Z, A SUPPORTIVE GREETING

From one generation to another, keep going!" Part One, "War"

• Ecclesiastes 3:1: "To every thing there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven."

  This is essentially a letter of support to Generation Z, from a rowdy Boomer survivor who was quite sharp and rebellious in my own youth. We are not so different, you and I, as each age has good things and challenges. This is my letter of blessing, directed your way, for what it is worth, in July 2024. You may be "going through it" right now, but you are not alone, as many have had the same experience before you and we truly sympathize and empathize.  We were young once!  Holy Spirit nudged me to create a short series of letters of support to Gen. Z and that is why I am offering this, for what it might be worth to  you. I am not talking down to you, I was once you!

  My Boomer generation had a saying and as silly as it was, I am sharing it with Gen Z:  " Don't trust anyone over 30!"

  With obvious gaps in logic, since we would reach 30 ourselves,  should we be blessed enough to live through the tumult of our 20s, this misnomer laid some of the groundwork for the sheer intensity of my Baby Boomer generation, a very large one. " Youthquake" we called ourselves.  

  Thrust  through the middle by the Vietnam War, we were a combative and restless mob.  Much of the decade of the 1960's was occupied by  that nasty rotten little war that devastated both the Vietnamese people but also  cut a 50,000+ person-wide swath of  death through the USA, killing American young men who were drafted and forced to go and fight and die. One of them was my brother Tommy. As far from a warrior as you could get, Tom was drafted in 1968, sent and dead in 6 months. 

  That horrendous event, along with the overnight death of my Mom of a stroke in 1966, fully completed the tearing asunder of my youth and broke me from my faith in God and His Son for 35 years.

  The peace movement, sex-drugs-rock and roll, drove that intense decade. Political upheaval tore the nation apart as well.

  Research the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago? Utter  chaos. In March 1971, in the Spring of  my  Senior year of high school, I attended a large peace march in San Francisco. I still remember two of the chants we yelled, walking down Geary St: " 1-2-3-4, we don't want your F-ing war, 5-6-7-8, organize and smash the State."  Of course we yelled these things in tandem because of the crowd mindset and from the rhythmic intensity.  I assure you, the emotion was real even if we had no clue of how to manifest these demands.

  Each generation  has their cross to bear.  I do not know large amounts about Generation "Z", only that they are highly intelligent, tech-savvy  and caught in the cultural crossfire of 2024.  It was difficult enough for my own Baby Boom generation to function, amidst the social and political upheaval of the 1960's. While we did not endure what our parents did, who were young during the Great Depression of the 1930s and into WW2 from 1939 to 1944,  we still had our dark times, as mentioned above about the Vietnam War permeating all we did. I had many male friends who plotted an escape to Canada to flee the draft! There was great pressure to break from  tradition and be free ( rebellion and sex).  That did not actually work out that well, (see my writing!!)

  This missive is my attempt to reach out and say "you are needed, you are loved and you have a part to play."   You have skills I do not have and experiences I will never have.

  I am simply making an  offer of  a moment of empathy directed to you.

  I will say to you, write down your experiences in youth!! Write the good days and the awful days!  Write the snarling rage and the rants as well as the awesome and majestic days!  Speak and record your voices, your hearts, your sorrows, your yearnings, your street-smarts and your hearts, broken as all of ours were as well.

  History tells us that each generation carries both the burdens, the failings and the blessings of previous ones. Considering how old humanity is, that is a huge burden to carry...and yet, each one contributes. 

  I am not into writing "platitudes" of “there there, young person, all will be OK", when you actually feel like a big steaming pile of excrement at times. It is not remotely fun...but it is the shaping and sharpening element of becoming an adult and stumbling out into the world of work and relationships and attempting to keep the chaos at reasonable bay. I surely did not do it well and you do not have to either. Just…keep…going.

  Just know you do not have to be perfect and you do not have to be a shining example of "fine young people". Too much friggin’ pressure, that is what I myself thought!  Just plod some days, cry, let it rip, ask God and His Son Jesus Christ to help you.  They are the best Companions of all!

  You are a precious and greatly valued part of the human race. Ignore the naysayers.

  I will have two or three more parts to this Gen Z address, upcoming soon. Also, a 1960’s rock group called “the Byrds” did a song called “Turn Turn Turn” , which took the very words from that verse I mention, from Ecclesiastes 3:1 in the Old Testament of the Bible. Great and moving song, look it up!

   

  Blessings and love from an honored Elder of Baby Boomers, born in November 1952. More to come, soon.

  Wendy Elizabeth Williams     July 2, 2024