Just a note on where we’re headed between now to April in this exploration of personal, psychospiritual, social, and cultural excellence that I call the New Florence.
We’re in the midst of exploring the mindsets, cultures, and achievements of generations, which is, to me, a highly useful lens (though not a perfect lens) through which to look at history — and really the only lens through which to look at human experience across the lifespan.
In 2023, I wrote pieces reviewing how generational expert Neil Howe looks at the five living generations — the Silent Generation born from 1925 to 1942, Boomers born from 1943 to 1960, GenXers born from 1961 to 1982, Millennials born from 1983 to perhaps 2005, and “Homelanders” born from 2006 to present.
Howe and his late coauthor William Strauss have profoundly shaped my view of generations since 1990. However, this Fall, I decided to set out to write not what Howe believes but what I believe.
On November 14, I summed up 17 generations beginning with that of Columbus and da Vinci in one paragraph each. I then looked at the Missionary Generation (born 1860 to 1882), the Jazz Generation (born 1883 to 1901), the Big Band Generation (born 1902 to 1924), and what I call the Folk Generation (born 1925 to 1942) cuz I find “Silent” a negative and slightly insulting name for them.
On December 11, I wrote the most definitive piece I could write about the Boom Generation born from 1943 to 1959. This has become one of the most-read pieces I’ve written since I started writing on Substack 25 months ago.
It was then that I set out to write the most definitive piece I could write about my own generation, Generation X, born, in my view, from 1960 to 1979. I’ve been thinking about us Xers for four decades now, since my late teens, and thought this would go fairly quickly. I made great progress but then realized there were things I needed to look at in more depth before finishing it and delivering it to you.
As you can tell, I did a deep dive into music written and/or performed by Gen Xers, far beyond any exploration I’d done before. And came up with almost 300 songs on six playlists — 50 great dance songs, 100 popular love songs, 50 great spiritual songs, 40 great songs of wisdom, and 55 great songs of empathy and care — all of which I’ve shared with you already, along with 30 great motivational songs I’ll post later this week. (Some songs appear on two lists, so it works out to almost 300 songs.)
Along the way, I’ve written new pieces about Coldplay and OneRepublic and will do the same later this week for Kirk Franklin and Jonathan David Helser as well as repost my pieces from a year ago about U2 and Enya.
I also did a new deep dive into some of our most popular thinkers and influencers: Joe Rogan, Tony Robbins, Malcolm Gladwell, and Jordan Peterson (the most-read piece so far) — with short pieces on both Brene Brown and Alain de Botton to come.
And, of course, I need to write about our great literary mind David Foster Wallace before wrapping things up, and I’ll repost my writing from June about our other great literary mind, Dave Eggers — both in early February.
I’ll deliver a piece about GenX spirituality, a widely-neglected topic, almost totally ignored even by Neil Howe and William Strauss in their comprehensive generational work.
Then, at last, I’ll produce the end-goal of all this effort: the most definitive piece I can write about Generation X. I’ll deliver that to you in about three weeks.
At that point, I’ll share with you my best thinking about the Zero Point Field and why it matters to our daily experience. And then share with you my best thinking about the Millennial Generation — including pieces about musicians Avicii, Alicia Keys, Jacob Collier, and Mumford & Sons, podcaster Chris Williamson, and comedians Trevor Noah and Josh Johnson — followed by my best thinking about the Zoomers.
That will carry us into April — at which point we’ll move in a very different direction.
Hope you continue to find meaning and value in this work. Thank you for sharing in this journey toward that idyllic future of personal, psychospiritual, social, and cultural excellence, the New Florence.
All my best,
Mike