Speak and you will be heard.

The millennial — “a turn-of-century generation,” a transformative generation, and a generation that kind of saw its view of the world and the ground on which it was standing unsettled, shifted, very rapidly and bluntly.

While doing research about communications between generations, I listened to a panel discussion that included multigenerational participants. I captured several insights from an outstanding millennial participant on the panel to share with you. I felt more than comfortable with her as a steward of her generation. I invite you to read or listen to the entire podcast, Repairing the Breach referenced in the footnote.

“Perhaps the capacity to understand, to filter, to test things that you learn, through mediated forms, in the real world, through human connection, is something that we can’t take for granted. I read a recent research article that howed how college students, because of their addiction to social media devices, had almost a 40 percent drop in empathy. Before you had the world at your fingertips, or in your pocket, you had to re-engage with the person next to you, look them in the eye and find something else to say, as awkward as that might be.

But without that experience of having to go back to people at a moment of non-stimulation, we could miss something and accidentally have a profound effect on our brains and our characters. So, I think that we both need to embrace the limitless possibilities of technology and reaffirm the limitless possibilities of another human being that you’re next to in a room. That is all the more important when the people that you might be next to in a room are different than you. How fascinating and exciting and bottomless that degree of knowledge could be. It’s really hard to hate someone that you’re talking to face-to-face.

So, when I think about what needs to change, it’s not tolerance, right, because you can tolerate someone who’s lower on the ladder than you are. In fact, you want them around, so you know where you are. But we need to get to a place where there’s a real — it’s a pretty radical idea, but other societies have done it — just belief and acceptance of the fact that we’re all worthy.”[1]

[1] https://onbeing.org/programs/heather-mcghee-and-matt-kibbe-repairing-the-breach/

    Until next time, remember,

• You are not alone.

• You are not your circumstances.

• You have everything within you to live a purpose-filled life.