If you’re in your mid 30’s to 40’s (or close to that range at either end) I have a question for you. How does it feel to see our generation taking our turn at the management of this country?

President-elect Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are in their mid 40’s, the Bidens (especially Joe) are little beyond that age but close enough. Take a look at the picture of the Obamas and the Bidens used in this post.  Don’t they remind you of your senior year?  You know that year in high school when it seemed that everyone was looking up at you and your peers as  a group and as individuals who were suppose to know the lay of the land.

Now think back a few decades…When we were in our 20’s (or late teens) we looked at the men and women running our companies, our communities and our country, and I know many of us thought of them in sort of abstract terms. We didn’t feel we really knew them (remember Regan?) but for the most part we accepted their leadership because we either respected their experience or we had more pressing things to do as young adults.

Now that the people in power and in leadership positions in our communities and our country are essentially our age, I know I feel a little shaken…in a good way. Those of us born in the late 50’s through the 1960’s are certainly not youngins’. We know a thing or two, we’ve made it through corporate America (bruises and layoffs not withstanding), raised kids and started businesses in record numbers. In fact sometimes I wonder about our younger years. We were far more conformist in our attitudes during our youth than our wilder predecessors (hard-core baby-boomers).

But that little fact doesn’t seem to bother us as much as one might think. We were educated by those baby-boomers and indoctrinated to believe that they were the chosen generation. I remember in grade 7 and 8 learning about Woodstock, the Kennedy’s and how much young people of that era really helped to shape our world…for the better.

My teacher was the spitting image of John Denver, played folk guitar and tried his best to persuade us to choose 60’s rock over the head-banger rock music of the late 70’s.

It’s no wonder we didn’t have that fight in us in our college years…we became a generation taken up with navel gazing  trying to find our own personalities and make a living in the “me” generation of the 80’s. All I can say is thank God the 80’s are behind us and that we’ve grown into the more thoughtful, sensitive, “green loving” adults we are today. And not a moment too soon either.

Our kids, those militant Millennials eating into our retirement money with their college tuition fees and computer expenses, aren’t too thrilled about the way we’ve managed the world up to this point.  There’s no doubt in my mind that they’re going to make us accountable for our promises and our actions. Our work is cut out for us, but I know we’re ready.