“ I had rather have a fool to make me merry, than experience to make me sad.” [As You Like It ]
These words of William Shakespeare can be taken as the apt definition of the term ‘ Generation Gap’. When the youth in the jest for life tend to overlook the experience wisdom garnered with age. Our society mirrors Oriental traditions and values which at times can be precocious and put a brake to the zealous speed of the energetic youth. This elderly experience is a regulatory mandate of do’s and don’ts and its but natural for the Generation X to lodge its protest. And then a term is coined to label it a ‘Generation Gap’. Lo! we have a commodity to market.
Strictly speaking if we examine the words we find that this label is not confined to the physical parameters of aging but goes much unto a deeper level. The way one is brought up, the values inculcated, immediate surroundings, the way of interaction which encompass altogether the process of growing up. And this is a give and take process where both the parent and the child learn to look at the world and share each other’s point of view. Every parent wishes the child to be a blue print or carbon copy of himself/herself. Oh!! What indeed is creation if a child were not to exceed or differ his parents in expression of life. Now where does the clash actually begin when the parents play such a vital part in the upbringing and molding the child’s future?
Fear to let go by the parents causes the syndrome of crushing the bud or not letting it bloom or express its indentity. This can be set right if the parents know the art of giving the right samskaras to the child. Just as the tree is sustained by the roots, likewise the personality is nourished throughout by the positive samskaras and then there need not be any fear when the youth branch out to bear fruits in a changing season, across the seven seas amidst foreign lands.
The Generation Gap is but a thin line to cross when the youth start respecting and loving discipline. Here discipline is the inner sense of understanding one’s being, one’s surroundings and knowing how to interact. Likewise the elders have to add a pinch of adventure to their wisdom. For its true that wine has to mellow with age but the fizz has to be there! Adventure is the spirit of finding and adopting new ideas and be ready to accept the change. So if discipline and adventure could go hand in hand the Generation Gap could be easily traversed. And if not so this can widen into a deep ravine which no one can ever fill. To start an effort has to be made to build a bridge of friendship between the youth and the aged to transcend time and limitations of knowledge. We tend to forget bookish gibberish but what we learn and share from a friend is there with us for life.
Friendship makes one open to all that is good, to withstand the rough tidings and to march onward in life. Only then can this be true:-
‘A happy youth and their old age
Is beautiful and free.’ (The Fountain- Wordsworth)
