A synonym list of ‘Chasing’ and ‘Following’ throws up an
interesting list of words.
Chasing = Racing / Dashing / Rushing /Careering/ Hurtling/
Hunting/ Pursuing
Following = Next / Succeeding / Resulting / Ensuing / Behind
/ After.
I have been an advocate of the virtues of the Gen Xers to
which I belong and have found myself an object of ridicule in the recent past
amongst my younger friends and family and also friends of mine from my
Generation who
often wear the’ cloak’ of change preachers. I am often accused by them of living in the
past and not intrepid enough to accept reality.
As a father of what you can call Z++ gen kids at home, I’m
mostly out-numbered in my opinions. Hence the only place I get to vent my
thoughts are on this blog with friends who have been considerate enough not to
take me to the launderers.
I hear so many youngsters these days talking about chasing
their dreams or passion and do not want to be tied down / adhere to the
traditional approaches in life, be it in the social or professional spheres. They
are all chasing everything which means they are rushing and dashing and
hurtling and hunting to achieve their dreams or passions. As you can see all these synonyms of chasing
throw up a list of rather ‘violent’ verbs and smell of impatience. On the contrary one could also argue that the highly successful start up generation of today was the result of this impatient chasing of dreams. The impatience in pursuit of valuations is a story for another day.
The GenXers also had dreams; it’s just that we ‘followed’ them
instead of chasing it. We had the patience to see what ‘followed’ and what the ‘resulting’
outcomes were. We rarely knew what was ‘behind’
or what ‘succeeded’ our efforts. In short we never knew what lay ‘after’. In contrast to the synonyms associated with chasing, you can see here the words ooze of patience and uncertainty and what
followed was always a mystery. We patiently waited for our efforts to deliver
our dreams. We were probably a generation of who preferred to wait for our marshmallows!!!
I acknowledge the fact that the personality of each
generation is defined by the conditions opportunities & challenges prevalent
in the period they were born and brought up. While we the Genexers where born
just after the baby boomers of the 40’s and 50’s we had to make do with the
limited resources available but at the same time enjoying the liberty and
freedom all around. The Gen Z where born at the dawn of the millennium and the
Internet. While the Z++ as I chose to label them where born at a time when facebook
and google were midwives at their birth.
Each one of the generations went through phases of rebellion
and their own share of questioning the norms and practises. However the tone
and tenor in which the Gen Z questions the norms is appalling. I don’t blame
them but pity them instead. They are living in a much more competitive
world and simply don’t have the time to debate and agree to disagree. They need to race, rush and hurtle in the process of hunting down their dreams.
We cannot turn our heads away from the perils facing this
generation since we are also stake holders in most of them by virtue of being
their parents / aunts or uncles. We as a
society of Genexers who I believe have the seen the good and the bad of both worlds are best positioned to explain and guide them.
