Living in History for Me, Just Another Normal Day for Our Kids...

It doesn't matter which party hat you choose to wear, or who you chose to toss your vote to, we have experienced history in a way that many of us might not have expected to see in our lifetime.

I am a child of the 60's (a fact that is currently fascinating my daughter...she asked if back in the 60's there was music everywhere, and if everyone danced all the time...). As a very young child of the 60's, I grew up with parents who kept my child's mind's eye safely unaware of the racism and injustice of that time. When we moved to "the big city" college town of Manhattan (Go Cat's), my dad put this incredible African-American, Mrs Baker, on his city recreation oversight board. Our families became life-long friends and even then as a Jr. high kid, it never occurred to me that some in this progressive college community would judge my dad's friendship with this soft spoken, insightful, middle-aged, single mother unwise or inappropriate. It's an honor to my parents that I was nearly 13 before I became aware of the evil of racism.

It's pretty incredible to think that the first president that most of our kids will really remember will be the first African-American president in our Nation's history. What once seemed impossible to me as a young adult (and even a middle-aged adult cringe) will, to our postmodern children, seem obviously, naturally, normal. No matter how you voted, looking back at our not-so-distant, disturbing, racial past, it is pretty cool that what we have seen as impossible, our kids will actually experience.

I'm re-reading a great book called Postmodern Children's Ministry and I will be posting about it in the next few weeks. It has some fascinating details about this new "postmodern" era, and some great insight about our kids and their Millennial Generation and our babies and toddlers who are the Adapters. If you find yourself interested and want a copy, let me know.

In His Loving Kindness,
Dana