Omnes Generationes

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1. Tim Sharp says

   November 29, 2011 at 4:27 pm

   Hi Ron, Thank you for this model…it is a very good one. I like the idea that this experience and insight was based around a real project, and not only an ideal.

    

   Two years ago I heard jazz artist Wynton Marsalis testify before a legislative committee. The purpose of his testimony was toward arts advocacy, but what I found incredible about his presentation was his use of the example of a member of an older generation dancing with a younger person as a model toward mutual understanding and proper relationships. It was amazing that he would offer such a “risky” example for something that he was passionate about, particularly in that setting. But what is more amazing to me is that his example has stuck with me now for two years. His point was when young people stopped dancing with old people, we lost a very positive way to relate to other genders, and to other generations. Frankly, my guess is that too few of us know what he is talking about to even have an opinion about his example, but I have just enough of this experience through my own dancing with my daughter to sense that he had offered a very powerful insight.

    

   Dancing together is probably NOT the answer for our multi-generational dilemma for leadership tools. Perhaps Facebook will help; I know it is connecting grandparents to grandchildren in new ways. I know you are right with your insight to how a faith community can and should work in this area, and perhaps the key for all of us is found in your phrase “keeping each other cared for…”

    

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2. Ronald Richard Duquette says

   November 29, 2011 at 12:18 pm

   Not sure this is what you’re looking for, but this is part of the solution we’re tackling here within my choirs.  I learned a lesson about the value of inclusiveness back in 1980 at Ft. Monmouth, NJ, when we did a musical called “The Hodgepodgeny of Progeny,” which took the best songs, dialogues, and little bits of wisdom from a whole range of plays and musicals, and wove them together into a “play” about learning, growing up, falling in love, marrying, having kids, becoming grandparents.  When the casting was going on, the audition team consisted of the director (an off-Broadway actor), the producer (a Catholic chaplain), and a local theater type.  When some 65 people had auditioned, Father turned to the other two and said, “Well, what do you think?” and the local theater person said, “Oh, a few might make it.”  Father said:  “They all make it.”  During the rehearsals and the run, we were divided (60 of the 65 of us eventually were in the cast – and the others had conflicts which precluded them being there, otherwise they’d have been a part as well) into four “families,” with the teens being given the responsibility to keep the little ones (and we had three-year-olds in the cast) entertained and quiet – and we were performing in a community center with no wings or backstage – so everyone was within view.  It was one of the best theatrical and family events I’ve ever been a part of.  And I think, if our choral experiences consist of this type of mixed-generation grouping, we have to start with the underlying atmospheric.  So, my church choir is made up of a significant number of Boomers, a GI Generation (born 1924), one or two Gen Xers, and five Millennials – and we focus on the prize of keeping each other cared for by the rest of us – constantly enquiring after family members who are not necessarily a part of the singing group, but have been brought to our attention for prayer and concern.  In addition, we have an objective – the worship of God – that transcends generational approaches.  This may strike some as being perhaps too “pollyanna-ish” – but it works.  And this isn’t to suggest that there aren’t problems – but they’re far smaller than what we’re trying to accomplish.

    

   Ron

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