“I was born in a generation….”

As I read Menand’s review essay on generational thinking, I can’t help but revert back to the times my parents would use the sentence “‘I was born in a generation..” to sort of justify some of their ideologies one could say. For example, as more people are able to fully express themselves and show the world that love is love, my parents don’t really like that idea. “I was born in a generation in which that kind of thing wasn’t accepted.” As we began to evolve as a society more and more people are accepting this kind of thing or rather not say anything to them. My parents don’t really understand how someone would date someone of the same sex. No matter how much I try to explain it to them, they don’t want to come to terms with it. Their reason for not being able to accept is generally because they grew up in a time being gay was frowned upon. Thus, them tying it with calling them the f slur in spanish while describing a gay person because “that’s what we used to call them back in the day’’. Not wanting to listen to how unacceptable that word is in today’s society because it “doesn’t apply to them”. Going back to Menand’s essay, there’s a line in which i couldn’t help but relate to this certain instance “‘You don’t understand what you’re getting.’” (Menand 9) It’s true, they don’t understand but it still doesn’t mean they can’t learn and adapt.