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Generational Grumbling: A Boomer Sounds Off

A Poem by Dr. Barry Lubetkin / New York City




I am not as old

As you make me feel

You exasperating demons of the digital age.

Your youthfulness suffocates my wisdom

As you cavort on TikTok

With influencers, improvisers

And imposters.

Your fingers fly over the keys with unyielding dexterity.

While my arthritis freezes me

To a one-digit dance.

You match and rematch

And swipe with erotic abandon

While I struggle to keep a friend or two

Alive in my mind for another year.

I delighted in Polaroids

That after a one-minute pause

Yielded a lifetime memory,

While you Instagram the most intimate poses

That spit on the concept

Of intimacy.

And you support your crew to

Explore every crevice

Of the social-media universe

While I bake in the crowded

Basement of Apple

Waiting for a so-called Genius

To explain for the third time

How to cut and paste.

But perhaps, just perhaps

I’m not as old as you 

Make me feel.

A lifetime of struggling for

Authenticity

Frees me to share my pain 

Openly

Can you?

 

 



Barry Lubetkin, Ph.D. is the co-director and co-founder of the Institute for Behavior Therapy in New York City. The Institute for Behavior Therapy is the oldest private cognitive behavior center in the United States.

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