Yesterday I bumped into Elinor and Adam at the Farmer’s Market in Corte Madera.\u00a0 Adam is a writer who’s just sold a screenplay and is working on another film.\u00a0 I offered congratulations and they inquired after my family.\u00a0 Elinor has listened to many of my toddler updates and though they’re not nearly grandparent age,\u00a0they are enormously patient while I regale them with Caedan Ray’s latest exploits.\u00a0 They know I live 400 miles away from the little girl\u00a0and they empathize.<\/p>\n
Adam, always a thoughtful and\u00a0well-spoken advocate for his beliefs, introduced the topic often taught by Margaret Mead, about the value of generations living close together the way we once did, and how much the youngers can learn from the elders.\u00a0 We three stood there on a beautiful autumn day and sighed about how we’ve never had that experience and how wonderful it must be.<\/p>\n
Today, friend Steve from Portland, Maine, emailed a coda to yesterday’s conversation.<\/p>\n
“Not a cheery household today.\u00a0 Susie left earlier to go to Massachusetts for the funeral of a friend and just before she left we got word that my uncle, my father’s twin, died this morning.\u00a0 For most of my childhood we lived in a huge farmhouse in West Bowdoin.\u00a0 It was an extended family–great grandmother, grandmother and grandfather, my parents, Uncle Ellie and us kids all living together.\u00a0 Uncle Ellie was an English teacher and ski instructor.\u00a0 He taught us to ski as toddlers on the hill behind the house.\u00a0 When I was a teenager he lent me his yellow Studebaker Lark convertible to go on dates in.\u00a0 He was a great guy and we’re going to miss him.”<\/font><\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n It’s a mixture of emotions.\u00a0 Sadness for Susie’s loss.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0always startling to lose a peer at any age.\u00a0 Sympathy\u00a0for Steve and his family at the loss of a dear relative.\u00a0 And I also felt a pang of envy about Steve’s childhood.\u00a0 His is the only story I’ve heard recently about such an upbringing.\u00a0 Then, finally, there’s hope in both conversations.\u00a0 Adam and Steve, considerably younger than I, are talking about the value of multi-generational surroundings.\u00a0 If this kind of talk continues and spreads, is there a chance that one day our society can take a few steps backward and embrace this idea again?\u00a0 That might be\u00a0a huge step forward.<\/p>\n