The Generation Lap

I once was a long distance runner.  Never was that good - at least at my high school.  I ran the 2 mile by default - I wasn't fast enough (in the top 3 on the team) to run the mile.  Our best miler ran a 4:11, number two ran a 4:13, and number three ran a 4:15.  My measly 4:23 did not hack it.  And in the 2 mile I was the # 3 on the food chain.  Our fastest ran a 9:25, second 9:30, and I brought up the rear with a 9:35 (my all time best).  I will never forget the day I was lapped - that day a dude ran a 9:0something and I ran a 10:0something...later I found out his 9:0something was one of his "bad days" - great - I could have been lapped twice!  I got lapped & got a standing ovation when I finished - how embarrassing- to boot - the girls National leader in the two mile ran in our heat for "some competition" and was on my heels...I have spent the last 35 years trying to convince myself that suppose the standing O was for me. 


This past week I realized I had been lapped - again.  Let's just say I'm technologically challenged. 

Vintage Coleco Mini Arcade Games Frogger & Pac-Man

The generation gap. Old news.  It means that the Builder or GI generation doesn't understand their self-absorbed Boomer children.  It means that Boomers wonder what's up with their Gen-Xer kids.  And older Gen-Xers who have children secretly worry about the Millennial Kids' fascination with   cyberspace.  Preschoolers today can wire anything, view VCR's as museum relics, but struggle to tie their shoelaces.  About the best their Gen-Xer parents, when they were their age, could do, well -- was play a mean game of Pac-Man...and Frogger!   Middle-schoolers can help their parents navigate Windows, but don't know what to do when asked to wash windows.  High-schoolers spend hours on the Internet, sending e-mail, texting, tweeting....Their online world is one where it is easier to learn how to build bombs than to build relationships.  While the hackers of our country are peeking into the Norad, the army, or the FBI, their Boomer or X'er parents are often trying to hack into their own computer.

It's more than a gap -- it's a lap. A Generation Lap.  Like I said - I have been lapped - again!  While I was sitting at the computer, slowly punching in passwords, trying to go online and check my e-mail, my Millennial Munchkins were racing around the cyber-track -- chatting with friends, researching a school paper, and downloading songs -- all at the same time!  As my daughters grew through this phase I - often - noticed them "downloading" during a church prayer.  Now Dad - "we are made in God's image & if He can multi-task so can we."

I've been lapped.

Here's what's happened:  A Generation Lap occurred when I was overtaken by my more technologically savvy offspring.  I sometimes believe my "Net generation" kids have an innate, magical relationship with information technologies, one that is completely alien to all who have come before them.   I did not grow up with computers in the classroom and will never catch up with those who did.  

Old School Computer Lab

My freshman year in college I dropped a stack of COBOL cards in the Old School computer lab right before the card feeder - some of you know what I am saying here.

As a parent of "Millennials" I got depressed until I considered this:  Getting lapped could be good.  I am not too physically fit these days - could use some work in that area.  The Bible calls for me to be spiritually savvy, and to maintain a fitness for faith (remember 1 Timothy 4:8?  - bodily exercise profits little but spiritual exercise lots) - not only for me, but future generations.   I think it should be the goal of every generation to see its children sprint to new levels of health, happiness, wisdom, and spirituality.  But lapping is never a sure thing.   


I think that is why the Apostle Paul devotes so much time in his letters to spiritual growth, often invoking a racing metaphor.   Some would argue that Baby Boomers (that's me) not only failed to lap their parents in terms of spiritual faith and maturity, but actually fell far behind. Instead of racing ahead to new positions of faithful service, they stumbled and fell in a false start of "me-centered" spirituality.  But with each new generation there is hope - my hope and prayer is that the younger folks will return to God - some are already out front of their Boomer & X'er parents.   I know mine lapped me a long time ago - and that makes me feel good.   FYI - they get their spiritual fitness & ability to multi-task (even in church) from their Mom.   As for me - well.... I gave up pursuing the spiritually contemplative lifestyle a few years ago.