feelin' bourgeoise, but divide between boomers & others

[shootingstar]

Just came back from a BBQ where it was for small bunch of cyclists at an alternative urban garden in core of downtown. One of the guys, under 25 just arrived in town for summer to work. From another city where he lived with parent.

He described how he was homeless for a few wks. in town, sleeping on roof with a tarp over himself. And going through dumpsters to fashion some climbing clamp gear for urban climbing. Whatever.
I felt hopelessly bourgeoise. The way how he told the story, seemed like sort of cool thing.
I felt totally the opposite: Ugh. I know if I had heard the story his age, I still would have cringed...ugh.
_________________________________________________________________
I grew up ..very poor. I mean truly when I gave my story of last 30 car-free years, I neglected to mention is an additional first 14 years, car-free....because my parents just couldn't afford a car. Some days was eating meat that my mom pulled off ....chicken neck bones. 'Cause it was the cheapest cut she could buy for 6 children.

And no wonder why all her daughters learned to sew....we absolutely had to. No other money to buy store-bought clothes for so many of us.

And many other stories.

Yes, it does ..um build character in a person. It truly can endow a person with skills of self-help in certain areas-- for life. And yes, it's helped me "tough" it out mentally during times of unemployment. I don't feel terrible for the material things I have since I feel I've given my time and energy as a volunteer for several years for each different non-profit organization. (And now, it's looking after 3 blogs in addition to a full time job. Nuts, but I do enjoy it. )

But it's made me work hard in a way for a chunk in life, I probably take for granted. I also tend to identify with non-English speaking immigrants with their problems, 'cause I've walked that tough route not knowing English until kindergarten even though I was born in Canada.

Therefore with news media stories that blame the boomer for making our environment a mess; that we don't understand the debt of younger generation graduating from university/college, the looming health care crisis when so many more boomers will be in nursing homes and shrinking population to pay taxes to support health care costs, etc.

I dunno. I think if the great divide that exists between the older generation and much younger generation could close the gap abit, with more understanding of each other's histories/backgrounds.

I know many people look at me as bourgeoise...but if they only knew where I came from in the journey of life.