To all of my GenX friends here, it’s time to become — to acknowledge ourselves as — leaders. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a leader in politics on an issue of local national or international concern; if you organize your daughters’ swim team annual picnic; or if you’re on your community’s Neighborhood Watch team . What matters is that you’re in, that I’m in, that she’s in … he’s in, they’re in, we’re all in. It’s time for us Xers to come away from the fringes of society and into the center. We are the generation that is now in our 40s to late 50s. We are, it is true, the nation’s midlife leaders at this time.
Where and how do you lead the world, your family, your faith organization, your book club, your kid’s soccer team, your garden club? Is it a meditation class you offer free on Wednesdays? Do you organize stream cleanups in late winter? Do you volunteer and manage the twitter account for a literacy-enrichment program in your community, or nationally? Or maybe you’re a mentor in your industry, one with connections and capacity to uplift others and make their dreams easier to achieve.
I know you’re all doing something. And if not yet, that you can be doing something. It needn’t be huge, or today. But it does need to be something. For these times are not like other times. We’re all going to be called forth to be greater versions of ourselves. This is more than an issue of who the president is or was. There’s a culture change afoot. Significant. And my guess is that we’ll be going through some dark tunnels (that could last years, maybe a decade, maybe longer) before we see open bright skies again.
It’s GenXers’ lot to be the midlife leaders during a time of national outer crisis.
So who’s in? How are you in? And how do you lead? Only you need to answer, but do answer. Please.