We live in many worlds, some of them not our own (to paraphrase Stanley Kunitz). We live in the world of our generation. Maybe we still love best the music we grew up with, the values, the heroes. I'm a baby boomer of the hippie generation that brought you sex, drugs, and rock & roll. My music comes from the Beatles Joan Baez, the Jefferson Airplane, Woodstock. My values are "question authority" and "Hell no, we won't go." My heroes are Angela Davis and Janis Joplin. Now some of you can relate to this and some of you can't because this is not your generation.

We live in many worlds, some of them not our own. If we have children at home, or hang out with grandchildren, or teach, we also live in the world of the children's generation. When your children attend grammar school you know all the popular toys, songs and games. For my son and me these were Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I only know a little about what's up now: transformers and Hannah Montana. When your children reach their teen years you know all the clothing styles, music, and messaging codes. And so forth.

We live in many worlds, some of them not our own. Each generation has its values, its styles, its idiom, its formative events, some of which dovetail with those of other generations, some of which do not. Generations make one another uneasy. How do you react to body piercings and tattoos? To grey hair and hearing aids? Older generations sometimes bemoan the character, even the worthlessness, of the younger generations. O tempora, o mores (Oh the times! Oh the customs!) exclaimed the Roman orator and elder statesman Cicero, in disgust with modern politicians. Younger generations sometimes disregard older generations as hopelessly out of touch and bothersome. We live in many worlds, though not always smoothly.

Each generation has its war, sadly, and that war influences the values and self-confidence and even the happiness of that generation. The reasons for that war, the outcome of it, the level or lack of support for it, the reception of soldiers returning home from it, all influence a generation greatly. My parents' generation had World War II and the Korean War. There seemed to be little ambiguity about the reasons for war and when the soldiers came home, they were received with respect from the public and lots of help from the government. They readily re-entered the mainstream of society. Their experiences and their values were affirmed. It's a confident generation and for many, a prosperous one.

My generation's war was Vietnam. Lots of moral ambiguity, lots of protest and disillusionment surrounded that war. We did not win that war and when the soldiers came home, many found a decided lack o f support from both the public and the government. My generation split. Drug addiction, homelessness, post-traumatic stress became the companions of many, while prosperity accompanied others of us as we floundered in trying to find ourselves and hold onto our values. We lived through and participated in significant human rights movements, (civil rights, feminism, gay rights), yet our disappointment at what we have not accomplished and for some, our surrender to materialism, disappoints and disgusts us. At the same time we attempt to hold onto our idealism and keep our faith that social change can happen.

The young adult generation, Gen X, has Iraq and Afghanistan. Moral cynicism follows those wars. Betrayal. A sense of helplessness. Confusion about what is right; what is true. What the purpose is. Lack of support and cut backs of services for soldiers, while on the field and at home. Moral abdication on the part of some of the people in charge. (I'm thinking of torture here.) I don't know how we can ever claim victory in Iraq or Afghanistan. I don't know what kind of opportunities await Gen X'ers. They are cynical and carry a certain hopelessness about the state of the world and their own possibilities for the future. They are the first generation to think, by and large, that they will not do as well as their parents. There's a certain anger about the world they have been handed. Nevertheless, their energy is strong and many y oung Gen X'ers are doing magnificent work in the world.

At any given time in a society, there are three generations of adults: the older, the middle-aged, the young adults. One generation does not hand off the mantle to another and simply fade away. As individuals we pass through each one of these generations. As individuals we are, or were, the movers and the shakers; the ones who shocked our elders; the ones eager to make our mark in the world, convinced we have something important to offer. Perhaps you are at that stage now. As individuals we are, or were, or will be, the middle-aged. The ones in our prime, with memories and experiences of both success and failure, of triumphs and disappointments. It's a time of assessing our lives while we still have time to make changes. Perhaps you are at that stage now. As individuals we are, or were, or will be, the elders. We can look back and see how we have changed the world. Our perspective is the longest. It's easier to step back and let others take the lead. Our work is mostly done. Perhaps you are at that stage now.We make meaning in our lives as individuals within a generational context.

Three adult generations co-exist in society, three generations with their own particular ways. At the same time we need each other. We need to know each other's stories, each other's dreams and hopes. We need to know each other's understandings of the world. Some of the most important20questions we can ask ourselves and each other, given this situation, include: How can different generations get along and pull together? Presently we have a world to save and it does not pay to ghetto-ize ourselves by generation or stereotype one another. We need each other's energy, wisdom, ideas and experiences. How can we better talk to one another? How can we better understand one another? In that spirit I want to share with you my experiences of generations at the General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association in June. And explore some answers to those questions.

During a General Assembly many things happen: worship services, workshops, business sessions, special caucuses. There's too much to do and one can become quite tired trying to do it all. And I haven't even told you yet about the exhibit area. Bookstore displays full of books by our own Unitarian Universalist Association press, Skinner House, and by Beacon Press; T-shirts, bumper stickers, buttons, jewelry, pottery, sculpture, musical instruments, fair trade goods, food, booths giving out information from all kinds of organizations. It's a wonderland of sorts. This year I found myself spending a lot of time in the exhibit area. No, not shopping. Talking to people. Talking to young adult people.

Let me tell you some of their stories. Please note that these are their stories and I make no comment on them. I simply want you to take a look into lives of 2 individuals belonging to a generation that may be quite different from your own. This in the conviction that when we know each other's stories we are in a stronger position to make a positive change in the world.

I met Fatema Haji-Taki a woman in her twenties, a Muslim, working currently for the UU Service Committee in the civil liberties program area. This focuses on the violation and erosion of civil liberties as part of the global war on terror. Fatema was born and raised in Dubai of Tanzanian parents of Indian origin. She moved to the United States when she was seventeen to go to college in Minnesota. She told me that 9/11 changed everything for her and she decided to major in political science. That started her on a path of political activism. She saw a disconnect in how many people in this country did not realize how American policies in the Middle East affected people there. She welcomed the chance to explain her religion to Americans. Islam and Muslims are very diverse, coming from many cultural and geographic backgrounds. Only 25% of Muslims are Arab, for instance. The majority of Muslims in the United States are African American. She urges people to break through their misconceptions about Islam and establish relationships with individual Muslims in order to build understanding. That's what really brings about change.

Fatema considers herself a realistic idealist and, having recently become a US citizen, she wants to assert her identity as a Muslim American. Through the Service Committee she works with veterans from Iraq, with organizations such as Veterans Against the War, and with Muslims, with an organization called Muslim Advocates, in helping them claim their civil rights. Fatema, who wears a headscarf, herself goes to the airport not two hours early, but three, because it happens too often that Muslims are detained and examined longer than others. She worries that what she writes in her Facebook profile could be taken out of context and used against her.

Despite the losses of civil liberties she sees in her work, and as a Muslim in this country, she tells her fellow Gen X'ers not to be discouraged. Get involved. She notes that young people, due to their age and relative lack of experience, do not always have foresight and perspective. Nevertheless, she says, "You get up every day, you say to yourself I believe in this and I'm going to do it and I'm going to count the small successes."

I met Cassie Meyer, a twenty-something evangelical Christian, who works with Eboo Patel in the Interfaith Youth Corps. This is an organization that works with young people of different faiths, bringing them together to get to know one another and to work on a service project. Some of their work is done on college campuses. Cassie told me that she had a conversion experience during her teen years and her whole world became the evangelical world. Then she went to college, where she met a Muslim student who had to interview someone of a different faith, someone who was "other" to him. At first, she couldn't imagine that a Christian could be "other" in the United States. It kind of offended her. But she became increasingly aware of the religious diversity that exists in this country and found her world expanding and she wanted to do something about reducing the misunderstandings and hostility between people of different faiths. Now she's with the Interfaith Youth Corps.

I met Esther Goldenberg, 31 years old, an Israeli born in Romania, who was in this country promoting the organization Zochrot, which means remembrance in Hebrew. She told me that when she went to high school in Israel, she learned that before the Israelis came to create Israel, the land was desert and that nomads lived on it. It was not until she attended Hebrew University in Jerusalem that she learned of the Palestinian people and their settled life and cities on that very land. She said that ruins of Palestinian cities were said to be from Roman times and that many Israelis do not know what happened in 1948, when Israel officially became a nation. They do not know what happened to the Palestinians. Zochrot seeks to educate Israelis in the hopes that, once the history is known, a moral sense will kick in and Israel will behave differently. I asked Esther if Zochrot offended people from older generations, people who survived the Holocaust and sought a homeland in Israel. She said it did sometimes. But then she said that the older generations offended her because they did not tell her the truth. She understands her mission as uncovering the truth. She believes that her people have the moral courage to face up to 1948.

Three Gen X'ers, three stories of people living lives meaningful to them in that they dedicate themselves to doing some good for others and for the world. I was incredibly impressed and I remembered that song by Joni Mitchell about the circle game of time. About how we go round and round and with each round more time goes by. When did this generation become young adults? Yesterday they were just babies. Now some of them are out there changing the world. How great is that?

Each generation must make its own meaning, make its own discoveries and express itself in its own idioms. The world that my son lives in is different from the one that formed me, which was different from the one that formed my parents. It's a global world now, and young adults come into contact with many more people who differ from them. Among many Gen X'ers there's an openness to difference, a curiosity about difference, less fear of difference. There is less pidgeon-holing of people. Many can tolerate greater ambiguity. Multi-racialism, multi-culturalism rather than black or white, male or female, straight or gay. At the same time, young adults face unprecedented global challenges, particularl y from environmental concerns.

We all do. We, together, have a world to take care of. May we live our lives inter-generationally. May we find ways to know one another and hear one another's stories. May we honor the generations that came before us, recognizing and appreciating that they paved the way. May we seek out their wisdom and learn from their experience. At the same time may we remain open to new ideas and not allow the past to make us rigid. May we recognize that the world has changed, the battles have changed and that those younger than us must find their own way.

Ours is a community of different generations. May we realize the treasure that is and how much we have to offer one another as we engage with the world and construct meaning in our lives. To paraphrase Mary Oliver, this is our time, this day, this moment. What will we do with the wild and precious life we share?