The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them. – Luke 15:12

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 20, 2014): Luke 15

I am a “Baby-Boomer.” I know, that is something that shouldn’t be admitted publicly. Technically, it means that I was born between the years of 1946 and 1964. My sister and I were both born in the waning years of “Baby-Boomerness.” And I have often argued that I have spent so much of my life trying to learn about and communicate with Generation X (and even Generation Y) that I have come to exhibit traits that are more reflective of those generations than of my own, but none of this changes my birth date – I am a “Baby-Boomer.” And can I just say this, it is a little uncomfortable knowing that the generations who have come after us are waiting for us to die (enter “Boomer Deathwatch,” a blog dedicated to the “Baby-Boomers” who have already moved on past this life - with the secure knowledge that “one day, they’ll all be dead.” But let me get back to the main admission of this post, I am a “Baby-Boomer.”

Paul Begala, political consultant and fellow Baby-Boomer, called our generation “The Worst Generation.” (That’s right, Generation Y. You are what you are because we led you there.) Begala wrote that “The Baby Boomers are the most self-centered, self-seeking, self-interested, self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing generation in American history.” We seem to truly believe that we are the only ones in the world that really count. The reality that we live with every day is that we are unwilling to make the changes necessary for the betterment of the world because we want what we want – no, we want what we feel we are entitled to. Solutions to climate change and the exhausting of resources are going to have to come from somewhere else, because we are apparently unwilling to make the necessary changes to rectify the situation. These are the tabs that we are continually adding to the bills of our children. They will pay for what we have refused to take responsibility. But, as the “Boomer Deathwatch” rightly proclaims, the good news is that the youngest of us will turn 50 this year, and we are not going to live forever. The only hope that this world has is that the generations who follow us will be able to do better than we did – that they won’t follow our example.

Jesus tells a parable which, although told more than 1900 years before the first “Baby-Boomer,” sums up “Baby-Boomerness.” It is the story of a young man who demands of his father the things to which he feels entitled – he wants his inheritance. To be honest, the demand itself is outrageous. Not only is there this over the top sense of entitlement to what it was that his father has worked for all of his life, but in making the request (because an inheritance is generally something that is received after someone dies) he was saying to his father that he wished that his father was dead. The almost unbelievable message was that this young man was more concerned about the things of entitlement than he was about his father’s own well-being.

Maybe the most amazing thing about this story is that this isn’t where it ends. The next verse does not include the way that the father killed his child. But the child’s sense of entitlement also became his downfall. His entitlement led him down a path where in the end he was unable to care for the inheritance that his father had given to him so generously.

And maybe that is the lesson that we “Baby-Boomers” need to hear. We cannot continue on the path that we have taken this far. It is not too late (I hope) to move from this selfish entitlement to a stance of care for what comes next. Like the father in the parable, our parents (the Builder Generation) haven’t killed us – yet. And we still have, because of our numbers, incredible weight to throw around. What would happen if we could transition and begin to throw our weight around chasing after what is right. What if we became proponents of measures to stop climate change and began to model fiscal responsibility – no matter what that meant that we would have to give up? What if, even just for a moment, the world became more than just about us? Even we might be amazed at what we can still accomplish before our time on this stage is done. Maybe then, when the last of us dies, the generations who have come after won’t be so happy that we are gone. We can hope, anyway.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 16