Oh Perspective, you are a cruel mistress. When you are mine, I love you. When you are someone else’s. I despise thee. I had my perspective. The view of my proud Generation. Generation X. So cool & with mutant powers. After-all, we are Atari, Grunge, Hip Hop, and Indy Films. We are self-reliant, entrepreneurial, and the original latch key kids! Behold our glory, the MTV Generation. We shall be celebrated. I love you, self, and all of your perspective. But wait, there are others at the door, with their perspectives, claiming our greatness. The Boomers. The Millennials. Do they not worship and thank us for all the things we have bestowed upon them? No… It was just then, from my high horse, that my proud, inner warrior channeled the memories of reruns from long ago. For they hold much wisdom. Thank the TV Gods, the bastions of morality, who so ingrained their lessons into every fiber of my being. Thankfully, I recall upon at them any time. It is said that Little House, Gilligan’s Island, Scooby Doo, Love Boat and What’s Happening all hold the key to life’s greatest mysteries…. but this time, it was the Great Father Teacher, Mike. Mike Brady. And it was just then that I realized, I am, and we are all Jan.
The Queen of Gen X
Jan, The middle sister, and Queen of GenX. Trapped between The Marcia Boomers and the Cindy Millennials. For its Marcia that gets all the attention. Everyone writes about them, talks about them and markets to them. They have the fame and most of the fortune. They are the beautiful, and aging like a fine wine, mature, and so popular, like Marcia. You know them as Johnny Depp (thought he was ours) Bill Gates, Samuel L Jackson, Kim Cattrall, Stevie Nicks, Eddie Murphy, Oprah, Bruce Willis, Gene Simmons, and Arnold. No surprise they have 57% of the Nationals Wealth.
The Cindy's
Then there are the Cindy’s…. The Millennials. The naive, precocious little girls, with all that baby talk and sensitivities. Those sensitivities have matured into moral outrages and public outcries over just about everything. And Cindy now has a cellphone. You cannot keep her off her phone. Remember Cindy was always snooping, sharing secrets (oversharing) and with a nasty habit of always tattling? You know Cindy. She’s Mark Zuckerberg, snooping and sharing secrets. By the way, as I started writing this, it was all tongue in cheek but damn, I think I am on to something here.
So back to me, the Jan. Jealous of the seemingly more popular Boomers, trapped in the awkward position as the middle Generation. Mad at Mom and Dad for coddling the Millennials. We were left home alone, had no cellphones, bicycle helmets or car seats. Apparently, the boomers did not love us as much as their second marriage children. We did not have Invisalign. We had a mouth full of metal. Do I look pretty now Mom!
Okay, I got to calm down. This was just supposed to be a fun little blog post, spawn from a crazy analogy I thought of, on a walk with my Millennial Wife and Beta Generation (I think) Baby Girl. She said something snarky about my Generation and I said, oh so we are all like Jan Brady. We laughed and I thought, great blog. I did not know it was ALL TRUE!
Because I am me and I must give you some facts here. I can just keep blogging random thoughts without giving you some meat. Most of us are a bit vague and there are a few slight differences of opinion on the exact timeline, but this is the general consensus.
So, which Brady Girl are you?
The Greatest Generation or “The Builders” are born between 1920 and 1945 so today would be 75 and 100 years old. I guess that makes them the Mike’s ? Anyway….
A Baby Boomer or Marcia was born between 1946 and 1964 so she is between 56 and 74, but a woman does not tell. Marcia is very hard working and open to new experiences. She is going to be around for quite a while, so maybe it is better to learn from her experience. Marcia, Marcia, Marcia…. know it all!
Gen X Jan’s were born between 1965 and 1980 so she is between the ages of 45 and 59. Jan’s going thru a serious mid-life crisis. Jan’s angry that she grew up before the Internet but not AIDS. She is still seeking life balance, always busy and cynical.
Millennial Cindy was born between 1980 and 1996 and is between the ages of 26 and 40. She is a super late bloomer and may have just moved out of the house. She is looking for meaning in her work and cares about making a difference. She wants to work with positive people and for a company that can fulfill her dreams. So naïve Cindy!
I hope you all enjoyed this post & learning about your inner Brady. My real hope is, we all learn from each other. Every one of us has many gifts to share. The stereotypes and idiosyncrasies accepted as common in each generation are just that. Stereotypes that are excepted opinions and pre-conceived notions. We are all individuals and amazing. So, I will end today’s post with the immortal words of Mike Brady. “Alone, we can only move buckets. But if we work together, we can drain rivers.”
Yes, wise one!
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