Postby Andrew MacLean » Tue 18 Apr 2006 10:42 am
Only because I started before he did.
1950 was a vintage year. Still comfortably within the "boomer" years, we became the mainstay of the rebellious 60's (a decade that really began in 1963 or 4, and didn't end until 1973). We were the Woodstock generation.
We were the generation that said adieu to De Gaul, protested about the war in vietnam, saw Harold Wilson arise in an atmosphere of unbridled hope only to vanish in a whelter of disappointment.
We greeted Kennedy and our confidence was shaken when he was shot. We sang to the dream of Martin Luther King Jr only to weep when he was killed.
We wore the Mandella t shirts and our hearts leapt when Alan Boesak was made President of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. We feted Winnie only to feel betrayed by her "necklesses" speach. We felt the shame of Boesak's disgrace but found new hope in Tutu.
Were we guilty of seeking salvation where it was never going to be found? Guilty as charged; like every generation we made heroes of ordinary people. Unlike previous generations, our heroes were too quickly exposed or cut down.
But I am bold to believe that in some ways the world now is better than it would have been had it not been for the optimism we brought to the task of growing up. Claire your dad was part of an epoch-making generation. When I was six I was twice as old as he. when I was nine, he had become two thirds as old as I. When I was twelve, he was three quarters my age. The gap continues to close!
Andrew
Andrew MacLean