By Patty Shaw
Author of The Healers Almanac, Wisdom of the 21st Century Goddesses, VP Coventry Creations, Teacher, Spiritual Counselor
The “Lost Generation” tagged by the Chinese and Japanese cultures is gaining attention and this label is spreading like a bad rumor. Kids born in the late 80’s and 90’s are becoming adults now and just like earlier generations, want to have at least one defining quality they can boast about and future gen’s can draw from. The conflict – and there always is one, is that the 90’s kids don’t have anything of their own to mark their individuality. They are spoon fed a repackaged culture from the 70’s and 80’s. Retro is comfortingly nostalgic, but honestly only for those who are doing the spoon feeding. Hey kids – you don’t know what’s good!
My daughter brought this to my attention and added that it’s not just about pop culture and entertainment, it’s economical too. She says these kids (and she includes herself in this statement) feel lost and are labeled as lost because the 80’s was a spiritual vacuum and full of social turmoil. They don’t see the world supporting them, nor do they have the foundation needed to help them root into life. Not like the past generations anyway. The corporate bubble has burst and is no longer the financial security blanket promised. They have to make their own way because the blueprint of their elders no longer fits.
I question the spiritual vacuum comment because my spiritual growth and exploration began in the 80’s and hasn’t stopped. Spiritual guidance is there, always has been. So what is different, or lacking for the children of the 80’s 90’s, and now the 00’s? In my opinion what is different here is a shrinking world, not a morally and spiritually vacant one. People growing up now, starting in the 80’s, have been exposed to a new paradigm, the internet. They are the ones to truly have the world at their fingertips. Instead of calling these kids a lost generation, I’d like to call them the expanded generation. They may look lost to us, but I see a generation of children creating themselves from a palette much larger than their grandparents and sometimes their parents had to choose from.
As we guide our children and our children’s children, they need us to be expansive too. Make it safe and acceptable for your kids to explore the world and try on different ideas. They will bring it all in to be reinterpreted through their eyes. Don’t label them as lost or pointless; let them be unique individuals in their own way. Their job is to take everything that’s been handed to them and redefine it for themselves. Give it meaning, not the other way around as in it gives them meaning. My children are adults now and I watch them question everything and place their own value on the world and its content. Many times they are frightened and I share my experiences with them to help calm them. They take that information and use it in their own way and I am constantly learning all the different ways you can solve the same problem. (No, I wasn’t going to say skin a cat – that’s just gross.)
I think what I am saying is tolerance and expanded awareness is the gift of this generation. There may not be a road map, but it doesn’t mean they are lost. In turn that means that we are not lost either.
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