I was talking with my Good Friends Tieman "Skipper" Dippel and Gordon Pennington as we always try to do Thursday afternoons. Skipper is about to Release his Second Book "Wisdom of Generations" which describes the significance of what we have learned and been taught by our parents, grand parents and mentors. This book looks at the balance between Conscience and Convenience in relationship to the dynamics of Human, Business and Political Interaction. I invited Gordon Pennington (former Chief Marketing Officer for Tommy Hilfiger) the CEO of Burning Myth Media Group out of NYC to join us in the weekly conversation with us because of his amazing talent in the world of web based communications as well as his ability to create powerful long commercials or short documentary's on significant subjects that can change our perspective on any subject.
Our world is losing the connection to the past through the intimate communication method we learned mouth to mouth and hand to hand over the past generations. Today so much is learned through the Web which is created a highly intelligent generation that knows alot, but have an inability to to convert the knowledge they know into Wisdom that they can apply. Psychologists are also fearful that because the social time that was spent with us by our parents (I'm a Baby Boomer) reading stories to us or hanging out for hours with our grandparents is now lost on video games and extreme hours of watching TV. They believe that Social time was critical to our ability to understand compassion and to learn and develop empathy! We have a new generation of kids who are not only judgmental, they are also more narcissistic.
In Skipper's new book he describes an Old American Indian Chief sharing a story with the Chief's grandson. He describes all of us have a Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf sitting on our shoulders. The Good Wolf is Conscience (right vs wrong) and the Bad Wolf is Convenience (Self Interest- whats in it for me). He goes on to say his grandsons ultimate ability to become a great man and great warrior will solely depend on which wolf he feeds the most!
I love that story because its not hard to see a generation of kids who are in it for themselves because their parents over indulged their children, teaching them nothing of any real consequence, instead using TV's and Game Controllers as the Baby Sitter, because the parents were too self involved to really care.
I always say "Time is Finite" and Time is our most valuable commodity. Please spend quality time with those you love, invite your grandparents to lunch and tell them "You love them!" Ask them to share stories about their past and especially stories of life lessons they learned through the trials and tribulations they experienced. There are no shows on television or any video game that communicate the lessons you will learn. They will be stories you will pass onto your children and grandchildren some day. After all, that is what family is meant to be for.....
Our world is losing the connection to the past through the intimate communication method we learned mouth to mouth and hand to hand over the past generations. Today so much is learned through the Web which is created a highly intelligent generation that knows alot, but have an inability to to convert the knowledge they know into Wisdom that they can apply. Psychologists are also fearful that because the social time that was spent with us by our parents (I'm a Baby Boomer) reading stories to us or hanging out for hours with our grandparents is now lost on video games and extreme hours of watching TV. They believe that Social time was critical to our ability to understand compassion and to learn and develop empathy! We have a new generation of kids who are not only judgmental, they are also more narcissistic.
In Skipper's new book he describes an Old American Indian Chief sharing a story with the Chief's grandson. He describes all of us have a Good Wolf and a Bad Wolf sitting on our shoulders. The Good Wolf is Conscience (right vs wrong) and the Bad Wolf is Convenience (Self Interest- whats in it for me). He goes on to say his grandsons ultimate ability to become a great man and great warrior will solely depend on which wolf he feeds the most!
I love that story because its not hard to see a generation of kids who are in it for themselves because their parents over indulged their children, teaching them nothing of any real consequence, instead using TV's and Game Controllers as the Baby Sitter, because the parents were too self involved to really care.
I always say "Time is Finite" and Time is our most valuable commodity. Please spend quality time with those you love, invite your grandparents to lunch and tell them "You love them!" Ask them to share stories about their past and especially stories of life lessons they learned through the trials and tribulations they experienced. There are no shows on television or any video game that communicate the lessons you will learn. They will be stories you will pass onto your children and grandchildren some day. After all, that is what family is meant to be for.....
RSS Feed