A Soulful Bridge
The Western Washington Bridge provides an interesting portrait of the vivid and vital conversations that can occur between the young and the old. This portrait, however, is not unique to this university. It is to be found in abundance among grandparents and grandchildren, among senior mentors and newly-minted mentees, and among those who reach across age groups to assist others who are in need—regardless of their age (old helping young and young helping old).
The Wakeup Call
One of us [JW] has documented this inter-generational dynamic in SOULlinks (Wright, 2015). The documentation begins with a bit of history and a wake-up call (Wright 2015, pp. 7-8:
For thousands of years we have relied upon the wisdom and experiences of those generations that came before us to enrich our own wisdom and knowledge. But lately the cross-generational relationship has been placed on the list of “endangered species.” There are a number of reasons for this, including the fragility of today’s family structures (divorce, ease of travel and separation, etc.), cultural and values differences. . . .
Not only has technology caused a generational gap that widens exponentially faster than the click of a mouse, it has also developed a social relationship gap that is troubling. We seem to be losing our ability to communicate face-to-face, develop social skills, and promote personal relationships. Now it’s all done with our fingertips, separated, remote and distant. Personal relationships are moving over in favor of digital – and impersonal – relationships. I read an article recently that made the bold statement (I’m paraphrasing and summarizing) that we are the most affluent society ever, yet we are also the most depressed, isolated and addicted society ever. Wow. That should tell us something needs our attention – fast.
The alarm becomes even louder as consideration is given to the needs of the older generation (Wright, 2015, p. 8)
Studies have shown that today’s “elder” generation is more depressed and isolated than at any other time in history. They believe they have become “irrelevant” and unneeded: And today’s young adults are also depressed and disheartened more than ever, because they are fearful 1about their futures and haven’t lived enough life to see there are ways through these hard times. The solution to this situation seems obvious, doesn’t it?
Mentoring is one of the most productive and satisfying pursuits. We both often promote these kinds of relationships in our work as executive coach with high level business leaders. We are also aware of the beautiful fruit that is harvested from these mentoring relationships in our personal lives. So, the ears of one of us [JW] perked up a few years ago watching the Today’s Show, psychologist talk about current research involving depression. A quote from professor Dr. Sara Moorman institute on aging at Boston College, Department of Sociology.
We found that an emotionally close grandparent-adult grandchild relationship was associated with fewer symptoms of depression for both generations… The greater emotional support grandparents and adult grandchildren received from one another, the better their psychological health.
