Intergenerational Co-Creation
© 2007 by Gordon Davidson
One of the areas of social change that I have become very excited about is the realm of intergenerational cooperation and co-creation to build the new civilization and culture emerging all around us. I have been drawn into this work as the result of my experiences with many members of generations younger than myself--in courses I’ve taught, groups I’ve worked with and one-to-one mentoring and coaching. They have inspired me with their vision, enthusiasm, mental brilliance, and with their deep, heartfelt commitment to solving the core problems in our world. I also love that they remind me of the passion for change I felt when I was in my twenties!
I have perceived how each generation seems to talk primarily to other members of their own meme or tribe, and how intergenerational sharing seems to need to be carefully sought out and facilitated to really occur in any depth. Part of the reason for this is that each generation seems to have its own language and way of thinking, which can be quite unique.
For example, for the 60s generation, the idea of creating alternative communities, or meeting places where people could be supported to grow and explore new paradigms was usually called “dropping out” --going to “centers of Light” or “liberated zones” where people could free themselves from the unhealthy patterns of the current paradigm and find new ways of being and relating. These unhealthy patterns include identifying ourselves by the roles we play, the money or possessions we display, distorted relationships between men and women and with the earth, to name but a few.
By contrast, the current 20 to 30 year olds, heavily influenced by technological and scientific language, call this process entering a “pattern interrupt,” and finding a “receptor site” you can plug into. Here is how some of my younger friends describe it:
“A pattern interrupt is taking a step back from our normal habits and seeing what is really happening. When there is an old ingrained pattern that doesn't serve – you actually have to hang out in the pattern interrupt – in between receptor sites – and hover there, and then organize around the vitality – which looks like our values, our embodied senses/awarenesses and our needs.
“A person enters a pattern interrupt because they are no longer able to function in the normal pattern with their heightened awareness. You cannot really go back because you know more now. If you return it would be painful. What you have been able to integrate during the pattern interrupt, you can apply when you connect up with a new receptor site.”
For some of the older generation, this might sound like a foreign language, just as my generation’s did to my parents. This highlights another key issue between the generations--the relationship between the idealism and passion of youth and the experience and sometimes world weariness of their elders. It often happens that creative members of the younger generation break away from their parents’ world and values (unless they happen to coincide, which they sometimes do) and establish their own generational “tribe” or “meme,” aka an affinity group. This process is necessary for individuals to establish a generational identity, as well as to establish their own personal values and identity.
This can be quite a wrenching and challenging process, especially for parents. Yet one of the functions of each new generation is to hold parents accountable for what they say they stand for, and point out where they are not “walking their talk.” The current younger generation has a great sensitivity to the actual quality of the energies people are emanating from all levels of their being. When they see people stating who they are, but then not embodying it in their being, they are quick to point this out. This can be challenging for all concerned. The younger generation can also indicate where an older one has lost some of its values, been co-opted, or made compromises that have made it difficult to live up to their values. Here is a statement from another member of the younger generation on this issue:
“Mainstream culture has expanded and extended itself in all directions,
insidiously co-opting and trivializing much of the imagery, vocabulary, and iconography of the spiritual revolutionary/activist via media domination - taking over the music business, film ,television, and even the wild frontiers of the internet. And the people are hooked: imaginations ensnared, attentions enslaved; ingesting the toxic medications and poisonous foods; continuously absorbing the mind-numbing memes. Brain-damaging stress is broadly cultivated through the insufferable hardship of meaningless overwork, the fixation on material acquisition, the health issues and addictions borne of the whole sick system - all tirelessly broadcasted through our so-called ’entertainment’".
This illustrates one of the questions that often arises from the younger generations: “What happened to the vision of the 60’s and all the people involved with the revolutionary idealism of those times? Did they all get co-opted?” Has their attention to the core issues of our times, building peace, economic fairness and a sustainable society been distracted into the quest for a comfortable or even opulent life with power to rule the world? A partial answer to this is that the people causing harm to others in the world today never had the 60’s values of peace, sharing, and love for all life, as not every boomer was a radical in their youth by any means.
However, those of us in the older generation who care about other people and the future of life on earth have been busily engaged for the past 40 years in creating alternatives to the current mainstream paradigm. These include the thousands of ethical and sustainable enterprises listed in Coop America’s National Green pages, conflict resolution initiatives in place all over the world, the women’s movement, the environmental movement, the wholistic health movement, organic agriculture, soul-oriented education, cooperatives of all kinds, alternative energy, technology for poverty alleviation, and a new spirituality that honors all traditions.
The infrastructure of the new paradigm is already in place in prototypes created all over the world by millions of groups highlighted by Paul Hawken in Blessed Unrest. Although ignored by the media, they are nonetheless successful and filled with new life, and they are generating hope and vision for millions of people. This infrastructure, and the ideas and principles behind them, are the true legacy of the 60s generation.
We can see that a key dimension of the intergenerational relationship is discovering what each generation can give to the others. Many (but not all) of this older generation have already made their contribution to society in various ways, including creating gradual change within the system, which the younger generation does not always see or acknowledge. They have established economic security and yet are still planning on continuing to contribute to building the new civilization for the remainder of their lives.
Younger people, on the other hand, are fired with a passion to add their energies to creating and transforming an obviously decaying civilization and culture, and yet they often struggle with finding the resources to do so. They bring intensity, brilliance, and wildly creative and innovative approaches to everything. They also bring an innate ability to use media and the internet for social change.
They can fire the older generation with renewed energy and passion to continue transforming our troubled world, and the older generation can share their experience and resources to help the younger members actualize their visions. It is in the co-creation of this shared vision of a just, peaceful and sustainable world where spirit is honored, that all generations can meet and work together.
I have also found in relating with the younger generation that they are hungry for older people to listen to them and take them seriously, to give them the benefit of their experience, and provide mentoring, resources and support for their visions. They are eager to learn and willing to serve. Thus there are many opportunities to co-create this partnership, friendship and creative power between all generations. The older generations know how to work “the system,” how to bring things into being in this world, and the younger generations have thousands of visions of what they want to create. If we trust Spirit and the living soul presence within each being, we can help the highest within everyone come into expression, as these will be the building blocks of the new civilization and culture.
But there are also challenges to this partnership, based in the stereotypes each generation holds of the other. Those of us in the older generation may fear being surpassed or supplanted by the rising generation, and may envy or resent the youth and vitality of the younger generation. The older generation may have an unwillingness to acknowledge their own eventual passing from this world. This can lead to a reluctance to plan for who will succeed us in the great work of building a civilization of joy and love on our planet. It takes greatness of heart to love, honor and respect the next generation enough to give them the opportunities and assistance they need to make their contribution to the world.
The younger generation may have anger or wounding from relating to the older generation, which needs to be healed. They may feel trapped by the “Matrix”—the system and its control—and feel afraid of being co-opted and contributing to an old paradigm that is destroying life. This causes them to remain outside of the system and stay in their own tribe, often ineffective and marginalized. As one young friend said to me, “When you have no money or possessions, all you have is your integrity, and you guard it very carefully.”
Yet this attitude can lead to separation from those who are ready and willing to help and support them. The idealism of the younger generation can also lead to a refusal to adjust or adapt and work with the system, so “the perfect becomes the enemy of the good.”
One way to evaluate the greatness of a leader of any generation is what I call the “oak tree theory of leadership.” Simply observe, in the shade of the mighty oak that is the leader, how many young oaks or future leaders, are growing under his/her protection and nurturing. It takes a careful balance of masculine and feminine energies to provide this type of mentoring and coaching, and many leaders of my generation today are able and willing to provide this.
The times require an unprecedented partnership between the generations, for the crisis today within humanity and the biosphere of all life on earth is of such magnitude that only the united heart-inspired efforts of all generations - including those still arriving - can set causes in motion to that will offset the current dangerous course we are on.
The challenges we face together of dealing with a system designed for profit, power and control are formidable. We as humanity, united across all generations, need to go to a deeper place of intuition/meditative decision-making together. We need a spiritual revolution/evolution of how we are perceiving reality, as just about everything in the current system needs a deep overhaul. And we will succeed because there is no force more powerful than human hearts and minds moving in co-creation with the world of Spirit and the world of nature.
Our shared intergenerational goal is nothing less than building a new, spiritual civilization and culture on earth. To achieve this, we need the synergized, co-creative engagement of every willing and able soul from every generation. Our purpose is to share and clarify our vision of the new world we are building, and develop a process for maximizing collaboration, co-creation and synergy between generations to make this dream real on earth. It is this unified power, love and co-creativity that can resolve our current crisis and move us into the world humanity has dreamed of and worked for centuries.
Center for Visionary Leadership co-founder Gordon Davidson is helping organize and facilitate an intergenerational gathering at Meditation Mount in Ojai, California from December 7-9th. For more information or to register go to www.meditation.com/intergen.) this site.
