My youngest daughter is almost 50 years younger than I and likely because of this often I have trouble having conversations with her. She says I talk in platitudes and in generalities and what I'm saying isn't specific enough for her.
But then again she went to the best private schools from the time she was 7 and from 8th grade on her private school was harder than any community college in it's courses.
So, maybe this has something to do with it because I grew up mainly in public schools (even though they were the best in Los Angeles in Glendale then, people were much less specific in they way they spoke about things then.
Speaking the way we spoke then was about politeness and respect for elders so you weren't hit and knocked across the room for speaking out of turn. So, generalities kept you from experiencing violence whether that violence was from an elder, a teacher at school, a coach at school, a bully at school or after school or whatever. So, you spoke as you spoke in order to stay alive in the world I grew up in. If you were threatened with physical violence you either fought back unless it was a big gang where you might die, then you might run or do something else.
My daughter hasn't had to deal with any of that as far as I know because of being protected from violence her life.
But I wasn't protected from violence and neither was anyone I knew who went to public schools when I grew up. So, if you survived to graduate public schools you felt intelligent and privileged to have survived all that to even graduate.
But, the point I was trying to make is communication is different now than 50 years ago for a variety of reasons, the ways words are used are different. There are a myriad of differences of how people communicate now from the past.
Finding ways to make sense of it all if you have lived as long as I have is difficult at times. And yet, I am very grateful for an amazing life that never seems to end.
By God's Grace
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