"Hair"

I got to see the musical "Hair" yesterday. The last performance on the road as they now go on to Broadway. Watching brought back memories of 1967 when it first came out. I got to see a version in California. I lived in Santa Cruz, California in those my formative years, the hot bed for the hippie, flower child movement. It's interesting in that I was not a hippie (my half-sister was). My finance (and then husband) decided to go into the Army and become an Army officer after college so we were far removed from the Love/Peace movement. We were stationed outside of Washington DC in 1969 when the peace protests were in full swing. Bus loads of love children were descending on the city in mass to protest the war. We had to be very low-key as military people. But I loved the music, the colors, the free-spirit of the people but I also felt somewhat removed.  I really didn't learn to appreciate this segment of history for many years until I was older and wiser.

Since I do a lot of leadership work with generations, this period impacted the Generation X as it was filled with all sorts of controversy for the United States - Vietnam War, Racial Integration, assassinations of key people, etc. The kids born from 1965 to 1989 experienced the fall out and results of all this controversy and new ways of living in our country. Generation X is a small generation but one that looks at life with a little more hesitation, questioning, feeling squeezed in the middle of two giant generations - Baby Boomer parents and Millennials. They are now filling management and leadership positions and are tolerant of Baby Boomers but impatient with the Generation Y - Millennials. Great opportunity to help bridge the gap between them; to help them understand that factors occurring when we all were growing up helped form who we are today and we can get along and be better at communicating, collaborating and sharing with patience and tolerance.There is a spot for everyone, it's just getting people to agree that work needs to be done on improving how we get along and work together.