Ruth Muraro
Our generation lived for Elvis Presley, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jackson 5, and Michael Jackson.
Our Brazilian idols were Leila Diniz, Elis Regina, Tom Jobim, and Chico Buarque.
We listened to all thismusic. Religiously.
In 1968, the “Reboucas Tunnel,” was inaugurated in my hometown of Rio.
The tunnel connected the south area of Rio with the rest of the city. Ipanema beach, which had always been an oasis of calm and tranquility, became jam packed and chaotic.
Dictatorship hit right before our eyes. But we still managed to be happy. At that moment, young students, all over the world, broken down rigid paradigms. Questioning morals and ancient customs and traditions. Paris was literally in flames.
At that moment speed picked up, and our lives accelerated.Our generation, the Baby Boomers, started getting married and having our own kids.Between all the rules, norms, and laws, of the time, we raised our children. We changed, we changed the world, and we created a generation. We changed what it meant to raise kids. Perhaps the greatest evidence of our new child raising philosophy came in the ever present sentence,
“Mommy said I could!”
The little boys and girls who were born in 1980 and in the years that followed, are now starting to lead the world. We coexist with them in our businesses and outside of them. I wonder where they will be 15 or 20 years from now?
I wonder who their heroes and idols will be? Who will they remember? Who will they be proud of?
I miss, Tom Jobin, Leila Diniz, Elvis, Lennon, SydBarret, David Gilmour, and Michael Jackson. I miss Michael in Black and White. I miss Belle de Jour by Sartre. I miss the beautiful “make love not war” attitude. Our generation laid the grounding for where we are today.
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of all this, is that we still question ourselves.
How do we deal with the new generations? Who are they? What do they want?
No rules and no family dinners. The television blares in our living rooms, and computers are almost as vital as blood, their sound interfering with the voices from the TV.
Our children don’t even have time to listen to us anymore.
So now what?
