Christmas with a Disconnected Generation
During this holiday season, I looked for joy in all the usual places — mailing out Christmas cards; unpacking and displaying a manager scene; and, ringing of Christmas tree bell ornaments in hopes that a few more angels will get their wings.
Despite my efforts, a dose of sadness mixed in with the cheer of the season, which was inevitable, since it's the first Christmas I've faced without my parents.
At 52, I am orphaned. I know it’s an odd word to use at my age and know that this angst probably will not translate very well to the under 30 group. You see, even in these middle age years, I miss my parents. Sadly, I am not certain my own children would miss me at this particular point in their lives, acknowledging that yes, I probably am being a bit melodramatic.
But lately, I have wondered if my parents ever felt the same way about me or if this parental disconnect is a new generational thing. Then again, I wonder if it’s more than a generational thing and somehow seeping into an overall societal disconnect.
In an era of twittering and texting, we somehow have managed to birth generations of people who prefer to avoid personal contact and then wonder why there is an empty, blank space in their hearts. We visit great cities and then walk around with our heads buried into our mobile devices instead of actually experiencing the moment.
We tweet a child’s death as if the horror can be minimized in shorthand verbiage. We sit in booths at restaurants. Instead of enjoying the person sitting across from us, we text or answer phone calls because we cannot or will not allow ourselves to sit in semi-awkward silence since conversation has somehow transitioned into a lost art.
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