That’s So Over

I have always enjoyed reading. It’s one of my favorite pastimes.  I’ve mentioned it before, how I enjoy books on history and seem to maintain a rotating library on the topic ever handy.  

What I have pretty much given up are magazines.  I used to have many subscriptions but over time I found that they went unread, collecting dust in some half-hidden basket somewhere in the house.  Occasionally I would empty the basket and over time it stopped refilling as I let the subscriptions fade away.  All but one.

Somehow I have gotten in to a morning ritual of green tea, grapefruit, shaved turkey and my AARP Magazine.   At first I tried to deny that my preference had anything to do with my age.  But now I freely admit that I read it because there are articles that hold relevance for me.  Not every single one of course, but by far the majority.  

I am constantly tearing pages from the magazine (I don’t keep them after I read them, they go straight to the recycle bin, no more dust collectors) and filing them away in special folders or notebooks, depending on the topic.  One in particular caught my attention today.  The title is ‘That’s So Over’ from the Aug/Sept issue and it is talking about the differences between the Boomers and the Millennials (those kids born between 1980- early 2000’s).

So, did you know….

• They outnumber the Boomers by several million?  Really, I didn’t know that??

• They drive about ¼ less than their counterparts did 8 years ago

• 83% sleep with their cell phones

• They don’t know what a drumstick is, having grown up on McNuggets.  KFC is worried

• 18% do not relish the American Dream of owning their own home

• They freely talk about the amount of their pay.  Goodbye office protocol

• And most worrisome to me…they don’t make any personal effort to help the environment

Having been deeply involved in the local Sierra Club for a number of years the health of our global environment is of interest to me.  I can’t say that I am actively involved any longer, but I do care, and in my own small way, I do what I can.  It makes me furious to see someone throw trash from their car and I do pay attention to things like global warming and the acidification of our oceans.  

The question of the AARP article was, ‘What changes will history’s largest generation wreak upon society?” Kind of a loaded, in a negative way, question, I would say.  But truly, if they have no personal interest in the health of our environment, what hope does our planet have?

There are approximately 76 million Baby Boomers alive today and by some sources there are 95 million Millennials.  So the question surfaces…’How do we get them interested in protecting the environment?’  If not them, who will step up to back-fill our shoes?  

When I was chair of the local Sierra Club the rallying cry focused on James Watt, the then Secretary of the Interior appointed by Reagan.  And large groups of people around the country did rally for the environment.   But what do the Millennials have to rally around?  What can move their focus to the important issues of their time, as they approach the height of their power and influence? 

  

I don’t have the answers.  What I try to do is one by one, contact by contact, ask the questions and probe their answers.  It may take a catastrophe to capture their attention….I don’t know, I sure hope not.