I was reading this website about the various generations. The article is entitled, GENERATIONS X, Y, Z, AND THE OTHERS. I read it mostly so I could better understand the dates assigned to the various generations. I was prompted to dive more deeply into understanding the timelines because it determines the context.

Telling you that I was born in 1957 doesn't make me any better than my son who was born in 1980. It doesn't make me lesser or greater than my first grandchild born in 2007. Or my last one born in 2015. Each of us experiencing life in a different way.

When I hit my mid-fifties I had an epiphany. And you know I am just a man in search of an epiphany!

It was simply this. I've never been better! Perhaps never more undervalued either. This wasn't a moment of feeling sorry for myself. Or complaining. It was during a conversation with somebody 20 years younger than me who was lamenting his lot in life. He was complaining and fully embracing victim mode. I was trying to help him see things more clearly, and to understand that no matter what had happened to him - or what was currently happening to him - that he could do something positive with it.

According to the research firm that posted the article, I'm part of the Boomers II or Generation Jones. Here's what the article about us...

This first post-Watergate generation lost much of its trust in government and

optimistic views the Boomers I maintained. Economic struggles including the oil

embargo of 1979 reinforced a sense of “I’m out for me” and narcissism and

a focus on self-help and skepticism over media and institutions is

representative of attitudes of this cohort. While Boomers I had Vietnam, Boomers

II had AIDS as part of their rites of passage. The youngest members of the

Boomer II generation in fact did not have the benefits of the Boomer I class as

many of the best jobs, opportunities, housing etc. were taken by the larger and

earlier group. Both Gen X and Boomer II s suffer from this long shadow cast by

Boomers I.

It's not right or wrong. It just is the context of the timeline of our lives. The timeline of our generation.

I was 40 by 1997 when the Internet was commonplace and usage was becoming more widespread. That means I had zero public presence during the days when most people start their digital footprint. And boy am I thankful. :D

It also means that I had a solid 24 years of business experience before I ever wrote and published a "journal" entry. In 1997 we called them journals and what we did was called "journaling." Later, it would become blogging on blogs. And that first audio file I put up online in 1997 wasn't a podcast, but it was an audio journal. So it began.

I'm not romantic or sentimental about my timeline. It's just my reality. And I'm aware that it impacts my perspective.

When my career began there was no caller ID. Our home phone rang and we answered it. I used to sell Code-A-Phone machines (a brand name), those tape driven devices that would answer our phone while we were away so people could leave us a message. Fax machines didn't yet exist. Cable TV was just arriving. Big screen TV's hadn't yet been invented. TV's were mostly sold by Magnavox or RCA dealers. We listened to music on vinyl records. Our cars mostly had AM only radios. If we wanted any stereo sound in our cars, it was provided by installing an overmarket 8-track deck with stereo speakers.

In 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated. I was in Mrs. Arnold's first-grade class at Hayes Elementary School in Ada, Oklahoma. Our classroom was on the third floor (counting the basement) overlooking the front of the school where the flagpole was. We watched as the flag was lowered to half-staff. See if you can find me in the picture. #FindRandy