Tis the season to be reflective and this is my last shot at yawl in 2009.  I didn’t want to bore you silly with a lot of resolutions that none of us ever keep.  So – let me share in the coming year what – from my perspective – really counts, things that really matter.

THE COMMUNICATION REVOLUTION is upon us!  This is a seismic shift, similar in cultural impact to the invention of the printing press. It’s changing the way we do everything!

If you’re 25 to 45 you say “So?” because it’s your life – you were born with computers and video games being a”normal” part of your landscape.  On the other side of the generational spectrum – if you’re 45+ – you say “So?” for a very different reason.  “So why do I have to learn all this ’stuff?’”  “It’s just a bunch of computer geeks!,” or , “I just don’t have time.”  It is and will be so MUCH MORE than that; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google have changed and are changing culture.

CROSS GENERATIONAL DIALOG is essential.  In the 70’s I remember the term “generation gap,” describing a conversation that was NOT going on between Baby Boomers and their WWII parents.  Today it’s a “techno gap” which makes it even more difficult to overcome.

There is so much value in cross generational exchanges – including the sharing of wisdom, experience, knowledge and stories.  I had a lot of contact throughout my life with my maternal grandmother – Anne Campbell – especially while I was in college.  The longer I live – the more I appreciate what she was able to share with me.  This is the ultimate and transcendent value of generational media – but it won’t work unless all generations join the party.

RACISM is still with us even in “post racial” America.  “Diversity training” and “Reconciliation” efforts – well intentioned as they are – have been miserable failures.  Diversity assumes you can change corporate culture without changing the cultural landscape – an impossible premise.  I will never forget a diversity trainer’s response when I had asked what had changed in the 30+ years she had been involved.  In deep resignation she stared back at me and said one word – “Nothing.”

“Reconciliation,” in the faith community is a kissing cousin in futility because the term literally means “to be friends again.”  How is that possible in America within the context of “black and white” when there is no history to support it?  Unity is the only thing that works because it’s in God’s heart.

I’m looking forward to 2010.  I really want to focus on what matters.  When you look at a new year and the beginning of a new decade – what do you see?  What really matters?