When the fiddle had stopped singing Laura called out softly, “What are days of auld lang syne, Pa?”
“They are the days of a long time ago, Laura,” Pa said. “Go to sleep, now.”
But Laura lay awake a little while, listening to Pa’s fiddle softly playing and to the lonely sound of the wind in the Big Woods. She looked at Pa sitting on the bench by the hearth, the firelight gleaming on his brown hair and beard and glistening on the honey-brown fiddle. She looked at Ma, gently rocking and knitting.
I read this in Psychology Today today: “While many of us hold marriage, capitalism and religion among our most cherished beliefs with time the voices of my generation will fade while the voices of the next will be raised up. Big ideas are often slow to develop. It’s the small facts, the imperceptible turn in the narrative and the inconspicuous characters that in the end take the story in a new direction. My own interpretation of trends and their meaning are surely works in progress to be revised and revised and revised again. Only the unread believe they know the end of the tale at the first turn of the page.
Our young are seeking new answers to their questions – not ours. Perhaps marriage, capitalism and religion continue to work for this next generation but in innovative new ways and in new forms. Big ideas bring big change.
Often overlooked Generation X may play a most valuable role in these social innovations for they speak both Boomer and Millennial fluently and have repeatedly demonstrated their unique ability to develop brilliant transitional strategies of their own. If there is to be a third way—a middle way—a new way—it will be this generation that leads the way. By then it may be time for us Boomers to retire. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, back to that little problem. I guess when compared to the end of marriage, capitalism and religion it doesn’t seem so big.”
Bright, shiny objects! 
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