Unfinished Business

It was only a few decades ago that Boomers, filled with youthful determination and an unstinting belief in American ideals, challenged the hypocrisies and shortcomings of American life and set in motion the seismic social changes that would rejuvenate our country and transform how we live. Back in the Sixties there were plenty of naysayers who mocked Boomer idealism and advised them with paternalistic solicitude not to tilt at too many windmills. Pursue your private dreams and don’t worry about changing the world, these elders counseled. But Boomers refused to listen and the result is a better America, a more tolerant, equal, and inclusive America. Now Boomers are facing their twilight years. In only a decade or two they will begin to pass the torch of leadership to a new generation. With work and family obligations winding down, they will once again feel rich with opportunity and time. And once again they will be advised to spend their days in private pursuits. This time it won’t be elders telling them what to do, but rather the siren song of marketing that will tempt them to live out their years accumulating new toys, adventures, and badges of youth, with alluring images of fun, fun, fun till the Reaper takes their T-bird away. And of course the media will duly report it all, writing wry stories about graying and feeble Boomers desperately trying to surround themselves with the illusions and trappings of youth.

But as with much of the conventional wisdom about Boomers, such stories will tell only a part of what is likely to happen. For in spite of what the critics have said over the years, Boomers have never bought such a pinched and narrow interpretation of the American Dream, that it’s all about me, that the pursuit of happiness is mine and only mine. Yes, Boomers have tried to succeed, to enjoy life, to stay youthful and have fun. But aren’t these universal hopes and aspirations—ones we find throughout history and literature? Does it make all who share them narcissistic? In the rush to indict Boomers, what’s too often forgotten is how—from the Sixties onward—they have engaged society and sought to make this a better world. In their schools and families and offices and communities, in the very settings and institutions that make up our lives, they’ve insisted on righting wrongs, including others, and believing with unwavering innocence that ideals are meant not to be ignored but to be realized. It is this determined idealism that has changed America. And there is no evidence to suggest that Boomers won’t be as determined and idealistic in their remaining years.