Having 2 millennial sons, I see some of what Simon Sinek describes. And I also see them as hard-working, not entitled, with manners, and good social skills. While my beloved and I surely made our fair share of mistakes, we were both kind of old-school in our parenting.
Especially me, as I was in my late 40’s when our sons were born, and already deep into men’s work. The values of integrity & truth-telling, accountability & follow-through, hard work, even emotional literacy … they learned these from us because we have been practicing them for a very long time.
Yet their generational impact is inescapable. They both struggle with using the technology wisely. The desire to make an impact precedes their skill set & capacity. They look at the corporate world and cannot … then consciously choose to not … find a space in it. And seeing young billionaires with obscene life styles, always checking out their peers, and the sheer volume of data to process, it is easy to get lost.
Yet their skill set and competence astounds me. They are digital in their multi-tasking and highly intuitive & socially conscious. Given the times, they are our best hope, and I remain confident that this world will be much different when they move more deeply into global decision-making. And seeing so many women step up and speak out, my heart is glad. It is high time that women take charge, because men’s time may indeed be over.
It has taken many years of deep inquiry for me to realize my 2 essential questions: Who am I? & How do I serve? I believe it is the plight of the young in EVERY generation … at least as long as we are carbon-based life forms … to discover the existential questions, and to learn to live them.
So while I often feel ancient, fragile, & technogically inept, even in these extraordinary conversations, I am proud of the wisdom that I and TheMenSchool brothers have accrued. We have learned that we do not have answers for the millennials who may come, but we do have some delicious questions.
I am a boomer, and my generation has redefined virtually everything. While our time is past (in spite of what it looks like), we are now redefining eldership. Elder wisdom may not be de rigeur in these post-modern times, but it is ancient, essential, and available in men’s & women’s circles across the planet.