Baby Boomers is a generic term!

Baby boomer is a generic term. It refers to infants  born during the years of 1946 through 1964.  A boomers experience differs widely depending on the year born and the geography. This 20 year span has been the common denominator and
marketers lumped all of us together. Not fair. Let's talk about the 46'rs.  We grew up during the 50's when moms stayed home, and parental roles were clearly defined. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was a refrain often heard. Authority was respected and feared. Those of us who grew up during that period look back on it as the best years of living in the U.S. Our dads had fought for our country and our freedom and patriotism was alive and well.  The news was often about President Eisenhower playing golf. No stream of murder, violence and mayhem strolled across our TV screen. It's hard not to be nostalgic and wax those years poetic.
Fast forward to the present. We 46'rs have mostly retired. We live in a world we could not even have imagined back when. It is an exciting time, and a challenging time. In the words of Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." The internet has brought us exceedingly close to the world out there. Knowledge can be had with the click of a key on our keyboard. Information is as abundant as snowflakes in a snow storm, and it is a snow storm. With all the information whirling about us we can experience a white out. Information overload. Knowledge is a beautiful thing, and in our new chapter we can pick and choose what matters most to us. Communication like Face Time or Skype allows us to bring our families and grandchildren right into our homes. It's the Flintstones in reverse.
Many of us have the freedom to design our day the way we want, using technology as our servant. We can ignore the Nay Sayers, the cynics, the steady stream of criticism that makes up most talk shows, and if we want to, politics itself. No need to feel guilty. We have done our part, and now we want to smoke the peace pipe. The world might have its' preponderance of ills but we don't have to let them in. We can turn off our TV's, censor our activities and find the wonderful gratification that comes from the simplest things. That is the personification of  the best of times, now we can choose.

Baby boomers essence is still intact!

Unless you have had the unique experience of living in the same town all your life, there is a certain longing that comes with getting older; remembering your friends of long ago. So many of us google long lost high school sweethearts, or school buddies to see where they are and what they are doing. You can do this surreptitiously in the comfort of your home.  We all remember our long ago friends looking how they were when we left off.  Unfortunately time has changed the configuration and the bloom of youth, and you are reminded looking in the mirror that you too have changed. Age has a unique physical signature.

 The good news is that we are still the same inside.  Hopefully we have gained wisdom, are less winsome, and more temperate in our opinions. Fortunately the seed of our essence is still intact. We can catch some of that magic of the young by engaging in frivolous activities. Would you dare skip when you return the grocery cart, would you forget the umbrella and lift your eyes to the sky and taste the rain, would you splash through the puddles instead of going around them?  Why not?  We are not on our way to the big, bad, corporate world of competition and boss pleasing behavior. We do not have to be sycophants to the powers that control our paychecks and advancement.  Now your smile is always genuine and your friendliness extends to the grocer, the waitress, the people behind you in line. Unencumbered you can be your authentic self with no props needed.  Age has brought a liberation that puts a lilt in your step. Best of all now you have the time to smell the roses.

  

A different kind of Boomer adventure

I confess here and now that I love adventure: heart stopping, dangerous, titillating, adrenaline pumping moments, and all from the comfort of my great big blue overstuffed chair. Reading has always been a source of unmitigated joy and danger with the shore always in view. I have another confession to make; I live vicariously through my children, especially a daughter who travels the world, seeks adventure like an eagle seeks land, sometimes with as little as a knapsack on her back, and experiences lives and cultures at the grass roots level. While admittedly, she did not get that wanderlust gene from her mother, I bask in her experiences, hold my breath at her endangerment, and release it when she is safe.

Where have I been living as I do through my daughters sojourns? I have traveled high into the hills of Thailand, to an elephant sanctuary, thrown buckets of water on the rescued elephants, and watched them stomp in joy. I have traveled roads cut through the mountains that curve like a snake seeking shade. Oh yes, she has been where cobras wander the lush green jungles of Bali, but remember, I am still safely ensconced in my big blue chair. I tell her 'write down your adventures,' but she is too busy living them, while I am busy imagining them.

While I have a greater appreciation for the cold climates, I enjoy most her pictures and descriptions of places like Kazakhstan and Iceland. A little closer to home, Seattle and Vancouver look lush and inviting without the fear of creepy, crawly things that swarm in the warmer climates.

Then there is the food, the face of which has no match in my own repertoire of meat and potatoes. Vegetables and fruits that I have never heard of are put in front of her and she relishes new sights, new sounds, and new tastes like no tourist I have ever met. Maybe the biggest surprise came when my daughter told me that horse meat is very common, and yes she did try it.

How can someone go from the tropical jungles of Vietnam to the arctic climate of Kazakhstan where the average temperature is forty below zero in the winter. She described a beautiful, indoor upscale mall, where they have created an actual beach with sand.  The buildings have other worldly architecture and the city inhabitants are young and upwardly mobile. Mmm, mobile where the snow piles high, the wind blows hard, and your breath is visible with every word you speak.

As my daughter journeys to these far away places, many of which I had  never heard of, I begin my research. Kazakhstan, the 9th largest country in the world. Predominately Kazakhs, but inclusive of 131 ethnic groups.  It is a city built with futuristic architecture, which to many seems more like a space station with a myriad of shapes and sculptures jutting out into the vast blue sky.

Is she really my daughter?  That is the spirit of adventure, and I also have it, as long as I am in my blue, overstuffed chair.