There is nothing like a well done parade. I attended the Rose Parade one year. What a spectacle! Even HDTV does not do it justice.
Parade participants are on display. They are front and center. They show what they are made of. They are worthy of admiration and applause. They show off their hard work of preparation. But here is the reality, we all can’t be in the parade. Some of us have to sit on the curb and applaud as it goes by.
A parade can be applicable to life. We all have been in the parades of our choosing. It is our profession/career. We have marched well. We have done our role effectively. We have had our share of admiration and applause. Yet it is essential we know when it’s our time to exit the parade route.
I am a boomer. It is my opinion that we hold on too long. And why not? We have great energy, excellent health, and still marvelous vision. What we have lost is our ability to platform others. We have resisted getting out of the way.
My generation has redefined so much. We redefined church. We redefined the role of a pastor. We redefined retirement. We have pretty much taken anything we encountered and formed it in our image. We did this often at the expense of the generation we followed. We knew better. We were unimpressed with anything that preceded us. We didn’t have time to wait for those, whose shoulders we stood on, to allow us our time. We simply took it.
My generation is beginning to be on the ebbing side of our professions. We are edging out, but kicking and screaming. We resist allowing those coming behind us to really grab the reins. We may step back a bit, but we never seem to want to step out. We want to continue our march.
What we need to do is move to the sidewalk and cheer them on. It needs to be their parade now. And, yes, it will look different than the one we led and marched in. This is as it should be.
The challenge we boomers have is we have tied our sense of purpose to what we did. We never settled into our who, only our what. This being true there is no way we can let our what go. Who would we be?
We still have much to offer. I am merely suggesting we move our contribution to the side lines, and off stage. We need to be mentors, not main characters. We must learn to be comfortable behind the curtain.
Unlike boomers, the generation following us understands they don’t know everything. They don’t even pretend to. Not knowing is part of their journey. They are willing to admit they don’t know. They look for answers in many places. One of those places is in the minds and hearts of those who have come before them.
I will say it again, it is time for the boomers to move to the sidewalks, We need to clap and cheer as loudly as we can. And as we do, those now marching in the parade will actually ask for ideas. Ideas that will make their parade better. And when they do, share your story…warts and all.