Boomers — We can still change the world

by Barney Cannon — 

I know you are out there. You are almost retired or thinking about retiring; you are a banker, a construction worker or a realtor and you drive a BMW, a Tahoe, an F-10 or a Harley.

Your children are grown, or almost grown. When you get home after a long day, you cannot wait for that chilled martini, glass of Chardonnay or beer. You look forward to the weekends. You really look forward to the weekends!

In your mind you still see yourself as that young man or woman you were 30 or 40 years ago. You still have all your hair, no wrinkles, no belly and no droopy butt.

That is you. I know that is you, because that is me too.

Remember back when we were all idealists? We were going to change the world. We were going to show our parents’ generation how it was done. We dreamed big dreams — of peace and of love. We had spirit and compassion.

So, did it work? Did we accomplish our dreams? Is this a better world? What do our latchkey kids think? Do they respect our generation?

A simple “no” answers these questions. We did not accomplish what we set out to do, and our kids know it. Boomers, the world — our world — is decaying around us, right now. Our children are still dying in wars, the poor are still starving, crime and poverty are up, and we now have to lock our doors.

We have become our parents’ generation. Worse yet, we lost our drive to make a better world — somewhere, we diverted it into a drive to make our own material lives better. We sold out. Remember 40 years ago? We raged against injustice. Now, we hit the clicker and find another channel.

Churchill (at least I think it was Churchill) said that a young man votes with his heart, while an older man votes with his head. Well, he may have been right. We surely have gotten into our heads.

But we do not need to stay there. We now live longer, and we know so much more than the people of Churchill’s era.

I recently heard a Crosby, Stills and Nash song on the radio . The lyrics said “We can change the world; rearrange the world.” Maybe we just got off track. Maybe we needed to mature a little to really find our power. I hope so. We have the time and the money now.

Dreams do not die — they just hide, and wait for precisely the right time to bloom again. Boomers, it is time to wake up and dream again. We can still change the world!

Barney Cannon is a baby boomer, a hypnotherapist, life coach and Reiki master, and enjoys speaking with people (even in groups). He has been a corporate executive, restaurateur, real estate agent, SCUBA instructor, mortgage officer, and more. 480-203-7045 or [email protected].

Reprinted from AzNetNews, Volume 24, Number 4, August/September 2005.