Generations Embrace the Idiosyncrasies Channel the Crock

The gap in generational experience is like speaking another language.

Our TV shows about Star Trek are funny. Social rules and interpersonal relationships have been the same in that universe for hundreds of years of storylines. That's not how things work from one generational epoch to the next. I am glad life is not scripted the same from one generation to the next. I may look like my father, but I am not my father. Unless you don't put my tools back, I channel "The Crock." That kind of conformity is excellent for tv writers, but it would be boring in real life.

What is important to me is not as important to you. I have read about a rule of thumb in relationships. You can have a meaningful relationship with someone your age range. The equation is to take half your age and add seven years. That is the youngest person with enough shared experience for the two of you to get along. This is just a rule of thumb. I use it to point out that generations living and working together have different goals and interests. It's perspective, I suppose. My husband and I have only a year between us. We were saying Me too to describe how similar our childhoods had been.

It must be like when a virus changes from generation to generation. Little tweaks between ages allow the new cohort to get along differently in the environment. Maybe not better, just differently.

Advising younger people is dicey.

When I was in my twenties, my mother was worried that I would never be able to buy a house if I did not buy one right away. Sure enough, I took her advice and discovered that the best I could afford was an apartment. I bought it, and instantly I became home-poor. It was not the advice I should have taken. I should have put all my money into Apple stock which was around ten dollars a share. And I should never have bought a house or condo because that is old-fashioned. It would have been good advice for my mother when she was twenty. Her mother probably told her to keep the fences and gates closed at night to keep the livestock from wandering off.

I don't want to give any out-of-context advice like that to anyone. I imagine that is why none of my older relatives tried to provide me with life advice. I must shoulder the blame for listening to moms advice and not taking it in context. Being thoughtful came to me later in life and was particularly helpful in my real estate career.

What am I reading this week?

Tell Me More | Kelly Corrigan

Kelly tells a story of her father's death, her slow start to find her success, and how to speak to her tween daughter having a meltdown. It's fun, sad, and brilliant. She covers how we learn to say things to people we love. I must embrace the most obscure takeaway "Embrace the idiosyncrasies." This applies to close friends and families. However, the workplace "you be you" mantra is similar.

My biggest takeaway is the title. Tell me more. That is the most lovely way to interact with the people we love. When someone opens up to you, the best thing you can say is, "Tell me more."