I see a lot of shade being thrown from one generation to another. I see it all over social media and all over our culture. It makes me so sad to see such a “Us Vs. Them” mentality over LITERALLY any difference AT ALL.
Y’all. Seriously. Come on.
Okay… Okay… Don’t get me wrong – I’ve done it too. (Most often – I am picking on my own generation, if I am being honest. But still.)
I started really thinking about this topic the other day though. I was listening to a woman talk, she’s in her 70’s. It is not my story to tell, but y’all – I had no realization that the shame and threat of being shunned by society for being an unwed mother was SO recent.
This lady is only 40 years older than me! It is insane to me that things were so different then. They had zero sex education. There was no talk about how someone becomes pregnant – they just knew that they better not come home pregnant. What?
At this point in time – young people were still being sent to “Homes for Unwed Mothers”. Families and communities were disowning them. The amount of shame that was instilled in these women was excruciating. Many times, they didn’t even have the option of keeping the child. No one would marry them.
Literally – just like the TV shows. Maybe I am the only one; but I genuinely had comprehension that that point in history was so very close to our point in history.
We get frustrated with them (“that generation” or “the baby boomers”) and we hate on them for not being accepting of where we are today. We group them together like they all feel the same way. We get upset and tell them to “get with the times” – but that fear and shame is engrained in them. They were raised with it, it was literally bred into them from conception.
It’s going to take a lot of work to get free from that. Have you felt shame before? Of course, you have, I believe we all have. How long did it take you to get free from it?
So what if we stopped this generational curse of passing down shame? What if we embrace each other for our similarities, our differences, our struggles, beliefs or our victories? Regardless of race, age, sex, gender identity, religious affiliation, socioeconomic background, level of education and so on.
No matter what generation you were born into – my plea to you is this.
- 1. Love and accept yourself – You are amazing just how you are. You are exactly where you are supposed to be right now. DO NOT allow anyone, especially yourself, to tell you that you are unworthy. Because you were born worthy.
- 2. Love and accept others where they are right now – You don’t have to love what they do. You don’t have to agree with their decisions or beliefs. You don’t have to understand them. Heck, you don’t even have to like them. But we are all connected, please love one another.
- 3. Don’t. Be. A. Jerk. – Next time you feel yourself starting to say something hateful, demeaning, polarizing or ect. Just stop. There is enough hate and crazy talk out there. Pause for a moment and think about why it really bothered you.
Usually – when something about someone else really bothers me; its because it reminds me of something I don’t like about myself. I am projecting,
Thanks for coming to my TED talk 😉
I love you.
XO,
Jorjia
(I don’t own any copyrights to TED) =)
As always – thank for your love and support! Thank you for reading, sharing, following and commenting! We wouldn’t be where we are without You!