Generations@Work

First post in ages. But I just read a few of Penelope Trunk’s recent posts (her latest has a link to a fabulous video I’d not seen before), and that was inspiration enough. I hadn’t stopped posting because I lost interest, it’s that over the summer I found yet one more important practice to find time for - yoga. Based on the number of yoga studios that I am now noticing everywhere, I’d say I’m coming late to this party. In this case, though, late is better than never. I started out going two or three times very early in the morning, and I’ve continued to do so, but I also discovered “hot yoga” at another local studio. The instructors/teachers, Kat, Jenn and now Peter are just amazing people, and a bit part of what keeps us all coming back, even when the temps rise to well over 100 degrees.

But here’s the deal. Every one of these wonderful people - in a caring way - give the same message: you’ve got to show up. You’ve gotta get on the mat and sweat if you want to develop.

Then there is the family. Our son Robert had a great summer working at a local Y day camp. Add two weeks of film school and there wasn’t much time for anything else, so for his eighteenth birthday we took a 1400 mile road trip to Niagra Falls, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Six Flags. A few days after returning, just enough time to get some crucial work done, we were off again for Seattle to visit family and attend Bumbershoot.

What is Bumbershoot? It is simply one of the best Festivals I have ever attended. It’s three days of non-stop music, film (the Seattle International Film Festival), performance art, comedy, high quality crafts, great food and a whole lot more. Set at a generous location just beneath the Seattle Needle, we had three days of stellar weather, bright blue skies and no rain. A glorious spatial landscape to take in a number of thoughtful films, rockin’ good music and some lively comedy.

What calls me to mention Bumbershoot was the mood; a mood set by the generations in attendance, but especially the Millennials. It’s hard for me to go anywhere now without taking note of something cultural related to generations, and when you find yourself in one place at one moment in time with tens of thousands of other folks, well, it’s an observer’s paradise. So when I say that the mood was exhilheratingly upbeat, positive, inquisitive, supportive, inspiring and disarmingly open, you response is, ‘no kidding man, you were at a music and film festival in a great city on a beautiful weekend. Mellow? Of course it was mellow! What did you expect? Altamont?’

No. But I might have expected some hassles. I might have expected to witness or sense some sort of conflicts or ill tempered human interactions. And there might of been, but we didn’t see it or sense it. What I did see was lots and lots of young people, engaged, aware and connected. Okay, let me be careful again. Before I sound like some sappy and patronizing Boomer, let me say this carefully. There was a mood during the whole time we were at Bumbershoot and I want to make a somewhat serious observation that it was not a mood of escapism or even just entertainment. There was entertainment-a-plenty; some great performances of all kinds. But in addition, there was an awareness that was not collective self-indulgence or self-satisfaction. There was, amidst the festive atmosphere, a collective awareness of people being in the world doing what they love to do, doing it together, acknowledging their interdependence, all the while consciously recognizing the transformative power of art.

As you would expect, every generation alive today in the US was well represented. But the mood that I’ve tried to describe was set by the Millennials. Do I have a point to all of this? Well, certainly not one big point. But a few oberservations. This was generational blending at its best. The festival itself was remarkably well organizaed and run. And I could see lots of people younger and older folks deeply involved in making it all happen. But what I saw was the enactment, the moment to moment creation of generation, a living and dynamic process of connection and narrative. This was most apparent in the theaters in between the short films when the whole room filled with a buzz of connectedness. There is a kind of ease dropping one is permitted in public spaces such as theaters. And the chatter was nearly as interesting as the films.

I carried my awareness of this generational mood to Chicago later in the week. I gave a talk at a retreat of executives from Fishback Financial Services, a financial holding company. We had a wonderful discussion about generational issues in the workplace. It felt good especially talking again about Millennials at work. Now I think I’ll just call this mood Bumbershoot.

An now I have to find my own new work-life balance. Family, work, blogging and yoga. Hope I can hold on to some of that good Bumbershoot buzz.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 10th, 2007 at 8:36 pm and is filed under Generational Savvy, Millennial Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.