Unfinished Business

Time just IS. We humans break it up into chunks that make us think that we have some control over what just IS.

By breaking time into years, we create the concept of generations. We think this is a way to help us understand those who came before us and those who come after us. In more recent times, we began to name the generations and to ascribe certain characteristics to them as a group.

For example, students who began college in the year 2000 were called Millennials because they became adults around the time of the new millennium. A decade later, this group was described variously as the tech generation, the digital generation, the connected generation, and the lucky generation.

I had the privilege of interviewing college students in 2010 in order to get a non-scientific sample of how they saw themselves and their potential agency as contributing citizens of the world. One of the questions I asked was, “If you had to give your generation a label, what would it be?” The label that one student suggested was the “Dedicated Generation.” The sentiment suggested by this label was repeated by others numerous times. They saw themselves as people who put their full efforts into everything they did. They reacted adversely to being labeled in relation to technology, insisting that they simply used technology as a tool to help them accomplish their goals.

These 2010s had big hopes and even bigger dreams. They exuded confidence. They said that if something threatened to thwart their efforts, they would persist. With confidence, they said that if they were told they could not do something, they would respond, “Says who?”

They talked about working for the common good, safeguarding the earth, sharing resources, and advocating for justice and the rights of people everywhere.

My assessment after these conversations was that the 2010s live and think globally, live more gently and collegially on the planet, and embrace diversity as a habit of mind.

Early into the decade of the 2020s, I hope that time and the times have not eroded their enthusiasm and confidence. I hope that they are not disillusioned by the world’s seeming regressive turn. I hope that they have not abandoned their hopes, ambitions, sense of responsibility, and optimism.

Despite the uncontrollable and inevitable vicissitudes generated by the sheer passage of time, I hope that the 2010s and the 2020s will not succumb to the calcifying effects time has on each succeeding generation. I hope that they will realize that there is always unfinished business needing the attention of activists just like them.