Crossing the Generations

A favorite opinion writer of mine is David Brooks.  I am fascinated with those like Brooks who can cover a far-ranging set of topics.  Brooks is a also a sociologist and brings interesting insights into communities, behaviors, norms, etc. A while back he wrote a column in the New York Times on how we change throughout the decades of our lives.  He placed these descriptors on each:

In our 20's - superman (person), possibilities, feverish energy, joiner, brave, entrepreneurial, unsympathetic to others

In our 30's and 40's - political scientist, lower estimations of own power and greater estimation of the power of institutions where you participate, faith in your navigation skills, adaptation, responsive to the "market" around you

In our 50's and 60's- sociologist, understanding of the power of relationships over individuals, managing and coaching, ambition fades and is transferred to the appreciation of ambitions of others, reflective and sentimental

In our 70's and 80's - historian, favoring tradition, appreciation of luck/fate, recognize the power of the dead over the power of the living

See yourself in this set of descriptions?  See your customers/consumers anywhere in here?

This is a path we will all walk, the question is what we will be like when we get there and what we will do to make the most of the understanding of what it means to successfully cross the generations.

Fast Forgiveness For Failure...

David Brook's article on New Year's Day titled "The God That Fails" felt like one of the more "practical" ways of looking at our government's successes and failures. The gist of the article was that our government does a lot of good things, but it is not a perfect system and it is filled with human beings so there will be times where the system fails. But, then most importantly is that Brooks says that when this happens we, as the citizens of the government, should not expect perfection each time, but instead, go with the flow and understand that it is impossible for government to be infallible. Those of you who know me, know that I fervently believe that there is only One that is infallible so I carry with me maybe a more tolerant attitude towards failures of others than I should. My wife Patti has always said that I forget and forgive too quickly. She considers it constructive criticism. I consider it a compliment. I know too many people who look for the hole in the doughnut. These are the same people who don't think the glass is half-empty, they think the glass is out to kill them. They take hard stances to the left or the right when it comes to the government and they are quick to criticize when something doesn't go perfectly. This happened this last week with the Nigerian who tried to blow up the flight in Detroit. When I read about what happened, I didn't like it either. I could see why someone should be held accountable and I don't have any issue with someone losing their job over not doing their job to the standards set for them. But, what I can't accept is those that say the whole system is wrong and failing because of one mistake. As I have pointed out before, the TSA has lots and lots of problems and Janet Napiltano has not done anything that I can see to make any improvements, but the entire system is not a failure and nor would it be right to think that we won't have other issues in the future. Government can't be perfect. As long as there are people involved, it is impossible for it to be perfect. Let's try this year to be a little more forgiving and understanding as a country. Maybe if we did, we would find common solutions versus staying so opposed to each other.