History of Generations - between Malls

I am posting this from Minnesota, USA where my wife and I are catching up with family and friends, and preparing for her school reunion a few hours drive South in Iowa City.

Not only is our partnership one that transcends generations (this boomer is married to a Gen X), it is one that traverses the great and often misunderstood cultural divide between Australia and the USA. Her twenty year school reunion will offer great opportunities for me to examine these divides!)

Over lunch today, a dear friend Lynn, who also happens to be expert in the Enneagram and has counseled many people in relationship matters spoke about her recent developing interest in figures of history.

As well as seeing the Ben Franklin as a wonderful example of a seven for instance, she has noted that these generational divides are not merely an invention of the 20th century but offer perceptive students of history opportunities to see the patterns we may otherwise believe we Boomers, Gen Xers, Gen Ys and Norties invented.

“Not so,” says Lynn, and she piques my interest to read more about such notable figures of history in the last couple of centuries. Ironically, it might be very boomerish of me to be interested in an historical aspect framed by enneagramatic modeling.

My Gen-X wife, true to her tribe, simply processes the notion that these generational patterns may be being repeated, dismisses it or gives it cursory attention, and gets on with her current project (today shopping for our new year baby). My well-educated Gen Y sons would scarcely see the relevance, as they know that nothing of any value has been developed or discovered prior to the PC, the Internet and SMS.

Just as I convince myself of my trans-generational, cross-cultural position, I am confronted with this boomeristic interest in history… to see what we can learn from patterns of out past viewed with yet another lens. How boomer-like and how culturally arrogant of me to discover this notion.

I find the Enneagram to be a most useful model for seeing ourselves and each other. I celebrate that there are boomers like Lynn who are not only expert in it, but who are also able to see subtle patterns in people. [Lynn, after all, is an important part of our story.] She will, I am sure, challenge our rising power generations to learn from history or be bound to repeat it.

Meanwhile, this trans generational boomer will get on with his trips to the malls – be they outlet, mega or regular. What a wonderful place is Minneapolis. More about my observations at my wife's school reunion will follow.