You Can Call Me Boomer

I was born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer Generation. A child of the 60's, a youth of the 70's, and an eventual mother of Generation X, Y, and Z-ers, aka Millennials. Of course these are all labels, and usually soundly dismissed by myself and my offspring, unless they are being incorporated as joke fodder. Which happens, honestly. Because funny is good. Humor can be a great connecting point, when used respectfully. When used to unite, rather than divide.

My passion in this life is to use my voice to unite. To weave tightly and strengthen the ties between my generation and those of my children and grandchildren, using every tool at my disposal. Using my voice in every possible way. When I was a child and a teenager, my father was a folk singer, and he had me and my siblings sing with him often, which instilled in me a love for family harmony. Growing up, I was just certain the way I would be using my voice would be as a wildly successful Chick Singer. I wanted to be Stevie Nicks, or Ann Wilson. I sang in road bands after high school and ultimately married a drummer. I just knew it was our destiny to make the world a better place, sharing music on a global scale. Instead we had six children and got divorced after 23 years. Through those years I sang in the minivan and the shower and to my babies, and I wrote in journals. The expression of my voice moved beyond the music and the lyrics to the bound and printed page. And with the advent of Social Media, the expression of my voice has moved primarily to cyberspace. In the aftermath of my divorce, I began blogging, posting on Facebook and Instagram, and writing poetry and movie reviews. Choosing just the right words and putting them in precisely the right order to describe the moments and experiences of my life has been my therapy and become my passion.

As my children neared adulthood, they also began writing and playing music together, and expressing their own voices in artistic and creative ways. At this point, much of my focus shifted to supporting and enforcing those connections they were creating, singing with them when they let me, and showing up for every single event they were a part of. I became Mama Promoter, a role I still cherish and will always continue to perform.

This year I turned 60, and I now have six grandchildren. (Generation as yet Un-labeled.) On the inside, I still feel like that kid whose only desire in life was to take the stage, and have her voice heard around the world. My approach to this desire is to not be the derogative version of a "Boomer," not recognizing technological advances and other changes in this world, and instead embrace them and use them to make my voice heard, perhaps even around the world. To listen to the voices of others. Until my last breath, I will use this voice of mine, in all functional versions of itself, to send good messages out there into this world. To harmonize, to unite, to inspire, to connect the generations and make them laugh and cry and think. To remind them that regardless of whatever time frame they were born into, they can make their voices heard. They can listen to the voices of others, and rather than generating labels, they can generate love, understanding, compassion, and respect. I am getting vocal in a seriously committed way. How about joining me?