Is there an app for that?

Times are changing .  . . kids nowadays have different challenges, different influences – even a whole different vocabulary – from when I was growing up. But some things just don’t change. Kids still have deep, searching questions about the meaning of life, and parents still struggle with how to explain.

Yesterday while having lunch, I was browsing various WordPress sites. I saw that the weekly writing challenge is all about our thoughts on aging.  Ask a baby what aging means to him, and you’ll probably get a giggle and a ‘ga ga goo goo.’ Ask a kid what aging is all about, and he may tell you it means getting big enough to be independent and make his own decisions. Ask a middle-aged person, you’ll probably hear about plans for retirement and all the things that can be done when one doesn’t have to work any more. Ask an old person, and he may reflect upon how quickly time has passed and how much these kids have changed, and how foreign the world feels now – not at all like when he was a kid himself. Ask me and I’ll tell you it’s every one of those things, and then some.

Anyway, Sunday night we were at our friends’ house after church, along with her daughter’s family. We were having a wonderful time around the piano singing old hymns, and around the dining table having coffee and conversation, while the kids ran in and out and all around. We were talking about old times and how it was back in The Days. We reminisced about when we were young, and talked about dreams and plans for the future. Yes, even old folks have dreams and plans for the future . . . they just look different from the younguns’ plans.

We began comparing our perspective on the world as kids to that of kids in today’s world. My friend’s daughter recounted something her kids had said just the other day. Her little four-year-old had asked her a very deep question.

Mommy, why does Grandma call pants britches?

Mommy replied,

It’s just a generation gap, honey.

Her six-year-old piped up,

What’s a generation app? Should we download it?

That says it all, I think.

Daddy, are you downloading the generation app?