Love Letters 3: Hey Boomers, I see you.

I will be doing a new weekly an occasional (because weekly is too big of a commitment for an enneagram 7 in 2020) series called "Love Letters" on smoreslife.blogspot.com. Welcome to the 2nd edition. In each letter, I'll be writing to "someone" - that person may be you. It may be me. It may be both. But no matter whom I am writing to, I am writing from a place of my own limited personal experiences. It may be from a place of first hand experience, or it may not. I hope it touches you, but it may not. If you don't feel seen or heard in these love letters, kindly reach out to me. I'd love to hear about your own experience.

Love Letter Series: Number Three

Dear Boomers,

You guys are getting a bad rep right now. Honestly, for some of you, it's validated. But for many of you, it is not. I want to tell you what this (barely a) Millennial sees in some of you.

I see you reevaluating everything.

I see you watching your adult children be grappled with massive student loans not at all proportional to their salaries, after that four year degree that seemed so important for them to get. Because for you, it was. You just wanted them to get ahead, in the same way you learned was the way to get ahead. And now, I see you, wondering if you should have pushed so hard. If you should have suggested trade school, or a gap year (or many), or a specific path that lead to a Master's or PhD that would pay off. I see you, questioning if you lead your adult children astray.

I see you, listening to pastors (many of whom are younger than you) tell you that God is Love and Love is Love and Love means ALL, and that, whoops, the Church was wrong about the LGBTQ+ "issue." I see you, questioning what you were told your entire life - and if the Church was wrong about that, what else were we wrong about? I see you critically thinking and undoing decades of (terrible) conditioning. I see you, you who grew up hearing boys who wore nail polish and girls who had short hair be called really cruel names, accepting your trans child with love and fear and hesitation and pride. I see you, grieving the child you named and thought you knew, and learning to call them by their chosen name and identity.

I see you, parents of divorced children. I know you were told that the children would only be okay if you stayed together, I see you being stuck in unhappy marriages because you were a woman who couldn't get her own credit card and now you feel it's too late, and now you're watching your divorced adult children be ok. Many of them are more than ok, they are flourishing, and I see you wondering - how much truth was in what were you originally taught about marriage? I see you, trying to support your children, while struggling with what you've been told was truth all along.

I see you, embracing conversations about race, gender, power, abuse, mental illness, God, spirituality, bodies, sex, and so much more, when many of you were hushed the second you breathed a thought of any of those things. I see you, actively working against the discomfort of having these conversations, and having them.

I see you, living in a world you were told was not possible, and yet, is. I see you, watching a generation below you live into a world that *was* impossible for you, and that must bring so much joy and pain for you at the same time. I see you, happy for your adult children, and angry for what could have been for you. What should have been. I see you, confusing those feelings sometimes. I can see why you would.

God's Kingdom is being built on Earth, and it looks different than you were told for your entire life. I see you, grieving and accepting that. I see you, doing the building the Kingdom work of that.

I just want you to know, Boomers who are accepting and even embracing change that makes you uncomfortable (or pains you) that I see you, and I thank you.

With Love,

E.