Don Sipes LLC

Talkin’ ‘bout My Generation

I recently read a lengthy stream-of-consciousness interview of Pete Townsend written by Andy Greene for Rolling Stone Magazine. For those of you who are asking, “Who is Pete Townsend?”, he was/is lead guitarist for “The Who”, a rock band that originated in the mid-1960’s that was known for their wild high-amped performances that included destroying their instruments on stage at the end of their shows. Pretty edgy stuff even for the young audience like me. Townsend is now, like me, a septuagenarian. Among his ramblings in the article were lots of nuggets of wisdom earned through age and experiences—and his experiences were often pretty dicey. One of the thoughts he shared was that he really didn’t expect to live to be the age he now is. This thought was nuanced by his reflections of the very early death of The Who’s very talented drummer, Keith Moon, who succumbed to substance abuse at age 32. As I finished the article, my mind went back to the lyrics of one of The Who’s early songs, My Generation.

People try to put us down (talking’ bout my generation)
Just because we get around (talking’ bout my generation)
Things they do look awful c-c-cold (talking’ bout my generation)
Hope I die before I get old (talking’ bout my generation)

A pretty heady message for young people who had little concept of aging and mortality. Townsend went on to reflect on his current senior citizen philosophies, what he hopes to do, how he wants to contribute, given that he didn’t die before he got old. For an aged rock star with his high flying history, he is very articulate and thoughtful. He expressed a sense of needing to refocus on his health and on how he can be of benefit to his art and to society. That’s a great goal for all of us. As I think back about the learning opportunities, experiences and counselors I benefitted from in my career and life, I feel a strong pull to pay it forward. I would assert that our society is forfeiting a huge resource when it fails to take advantage of the knowledge and experiential base of older people. And older people may miss out on wonderful, fulfilling, energizing and health-preserving opportunities if they fail to seek out how they can contribute to the benefit of society.

I belong to an electronic media group of non-fiction writers. Our group was recently asked by the administrator of the page, “What are you working on now?”. I replied that I had begun to outline and script a follow-up to the first book I wrote, A Culture of Leadership—Lessons Learned and Shared. My draft title is Over the Hill—or You 2.0? I shared that I didn’t know whether or not I would move forward with the book, because writing, publishing, and promoting requires a huge commitment and I didn’t know whether there would be sufficient readership interest. I’ve gotten some helpful encouragement, but I need to find ways of researching interest level in this topic, and if interest is there, how best to craft the content to respond to what readers would like to learn. At this point, I think the target audience would be those people who are considering retirement and how to plan for their next life (or "Me 2.0”). If you have ideas or counsel for me to consider, I’d very much value receiving it. Particularly, those of you who—like me—didn’t “die before I get old” and feel a tug to remain vital and to give back some of what you received as you lived your life.

Thanks for your consideration.

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