Revolution, Evolution

My nephew and his wife have an eleven-month-old, and they named him after my father, Burton, who passed away in 1989.

If my dad were still alive, he’d be 119 years old. He was born when airplane flight was brand new, before the first World War, when the U.S. had only 45 states.

Now, here’s his great grandson, who started crawling a few weeks ago, chasing the two family dogs and playing with their squeaky toys whenever he has the chance. He was born into an entirely different world than his great grandfather, and yet he’s following the same innate impulse to grow, to crawl, to stand, to walk, to run, to explore. To bring something new to this world. To not leave it the same as it was when he was born.  

When I think about him, I do what most adults do when they look at a child or grandchild. I wonder what the world will be like when he grows up. Who will he be someday? What will his life be like?

Burton has a lot of cousins, including two of my great nieces, who both work for NASA. One worked on the Space Administration’s most recent launch to the moon. The other is testing materials that will go to Mars one day. When Bob and I toured NASA last year, the tour guide said the first person to land on Mars is probably now in the fifth grade, so that inaugural voyage is not far off.

Burton has another cousin, a great nephew who was born as a she. We’ll see him acting tomorrow in a high school play—another step in his growing talent as a performing artist, which he’s exploring with great joy. In all ways, he’s expressing who he is.

I think of where we are now compared to where we were when my dad was born, and how different his great grandchildren’s lives are from what he knew growing up on a farm in Missouri.

Each generation ventures out a little farther, pushes the limits beyond what we’ve known, expands what humans are capable of. And yet, somehow humans want the same things generation after generation. Happiness, peace, well being, education for their kids and the freedom to be all of who they are, to create a life of meaning and contentment.

Despite all the dystopian fear to the contrary, I think children being born today are going to figure things out. We never know what will happen, or who will be the leaders. But I see many signs that these toddlers and young adults know things that we didn’t: how to collaborate, how to get things done without making productivity their only identity, how to embrace a whole new world.

I see signs that these new generations value each person’s innate gifts, not what anyone—including government—tries to exert over them. In fact, maybe they’ll shape a government that supports individual expansion rather than punishing individual choices.

I think these generations also recognize that diversity is a given—not something to be accepted, but to be celebrated. What if they could see 7+ billion unique souls as a resource rather than a threat?

I understand the fear about all the restrictions and coercive legislation in our state and across the country. But this, like all things, will shift and change. You can’t stop it. No matter how much some people want us to go back to power over others, the innate power within each one of us is moving on, expanding, growing, learning, stretching, seeing through a new lens.

Those who try to keep people “in line” with external power might remember that, like Burton, we’re designed to move forward. My dad lived it in his generation, and now young Burton will do the same in his. We are all unstoppable when we express the gifts we can bring to this world.

Sometimes we want a revolution when things seem to be going backward or fear appears to be in control. But quietly, steadily, we are going through evolution instead. Revolution rocks the world. Evolution can change it for good.  

Looking back over the 100+ years that link the lives of two Burtons, I’m stumped by the efforts to turn back the clock or pretend that children should behave the same way we did. What if we let them lead us instead of the other way around? Let’s see what they’re here to teach us. Let’s let them lead us to Mars, and to that dog toy in the other room. Let’s follow where they go rather than the other way around.

We can give them safety and guidance and comfort.

Let’s let them give us wisdom.

They’re here to lead the next generation into a future we can only conceive of. Why not let them start now?

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Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

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Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Nik Heftman, The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Kurt Meyer, Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Kyle Munson, Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen, The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics: Behind the Curtains, Washington, D.C.

Macey Spensley, The Midwest Creative, Davenport and Des Moines

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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