Baby Boomer Wisdom

One of the greatest assets of modern society is the baby boomer generation. They are the youthful elders of our society, the wisdom holders, and the insightful teachers skilled with real life experience. These are the women and men who have lived through the hard knocks of life and have learned from their experiences; they have gained the wisdom that only time and experience can give.

These baby boomer elders, born in the years post WW 2 up to about 1960, should be running the country, teaching in the schools, counselling the young, leading in business and industry, yet sadly, they are encouraged to retire from business and often from public life at the very peak of the wisdom -dispensing stage of their life.

Most ancient societies hold their elders, their wise ones, in a state of reverence and respect for their wisdom. It takes many decades for a person to discover who they really are in relation to their life purpose and to their place of service in the community. Yet in western culture, when our elders come into this equilibrium and embracement of who they are; when they have finally understood the riddles of life, our youth-oriented society turns away from their insights and wisdom.

Society cannot but suffer severely for spurning the very wise ones who have the understanding and life experience to steer society into prosperity . It is they who should be teaching our children the real skills they will need for prosperous and happy living, and upholding and nurturing the younger and middle aged folk as they search for meaning in their life and discern their personal self identity.

As every generation develops into maturity, they must take an incremental step up the ladder of evolution, so that the human species will grow and develop into ever more expanded states of being. This can only occur if the younger generations listen to the wisdom of their elders and learn from their wide experience and insight.

Sadly, but all too often, young and middle aged people refuse to listen to and learn from these very elders whose life-long quest for wisdom and understanding of the mysteries of personal development , have finally borne abundant and ripe fruit. This evolutionary upgrading from one generation to the next will, at best, improve at the rate of only stunted growth if this disregard of the elders of society continues. How can it be any other way?

The wise elders of our communities, the wisdom holders for the world of tomorrow, have won the right to be looked upon with deep respect and attended to with the love and gentleness that their lives of service to country and to society deserve. Baby boomers have more to contribute to the world right now than at any other time in their lives to date.

May they walk tall, stand in their wisdom and freely offer guidance and good counsel to the rest of society. Wisdom may not only come with age, but it inevitably and definitely does accompany our baby boomer generation. One would hope the next generation, as they eventually mature into elder status, will be asked for their guidance and wisdom. Society has been honored by their lives; now let society honor these youthful elders as they embody and dispense their wisdom for the benefit of generations to come.

So if you are younger than fifty years, take every opportunity to listen to what your elders have to share. Be smart enough to ask for their insights and guidance and astute enough to follow their response. 'No wise man ever wished to be younger". – Jonathan Swift.