Whenever I end up feeling like a jaded and discouraged old (or at least middle-aged) woman, hearing about the Millennials gives me hope. Thank God for young people. This new generation is more racially diverse than ever. They don’t see gay marriage as a problem. They’re used to women having influential positions and successful careers. They’re more likely to be skeptical of religious institutions, and to be spiritual rather than religious. They’re more likely to be vegan or vegetarian than people of other generations–I’m not vegetarian myself, but deeply admire the motivations which lead a person to make that choice.
They will also probably become more conservative as they get older, just as every other generation does. But that is the essence of the life process–by the time the Millennials get too old and crusty, new kids and new ideas will enter the scene. All I know is that the last thing I want is to get stuck in some static version of “the good old days”. Let my faded nostalgia get washed away by the flow of life, as it deserves to be, and in with the new.
eurobrat 
02/09/2013 at 12:01 pm
Ah, the good old days–“Disco Duck” and “Kung Fu Fighting”–they don’t make music like that anymore…
02/10/2013 at 9:51 pm
Yeah, I grew up on some pretty bad 80s music myself. Like I said, some nostalgia is better off when it’s dead 🙂
02/15/2013 at 10:06 am
It’s so funny to think that we were the “happenin'” generation and the torch has long moved on. Why is it we get more conservative when we grow older? Is it because we have more to lose? (It’s easy to be tolerant when you don’t have a “pot to tinkle in or a window to throw it out of”.) And why does the younger generation “always blame the one before? See how much you’ve given me to think about!
02/19/2013 at 2:33 pm
I don’t know, but it seems that the older humans get, the more we have a need for security and safety, and thus retreat more into settled ways of thinking. Yeah, I remember when we were the cool ones! It was a bit difficult to acknowledge that I’m no longer the cutting edge, so to speak 🙂
Your blogs always inspire me and give me a lot to think about as well, Eleanor! Thanks for reading and commenting on mine.