Boomers Receive another Call to Service

Harvard University's Business Guru, Rosabeth Moss Kanter issues a new blast of encouragement to boomers to dedicate their "retirement years" to service--

World, get ready! The Baby Boomers are becoming the Senior Boomers, and they want to change you again.

The generation that marched in Washington in the 1960s is marching into elementary schools, high schools, hospitals, and homeless shelters seeking opportunities to serve. Activists in civil rights and women's movements four decades ago now want to eradicate diseases, transform education, reform health care, or alleviate global poverty.

She contrasts the last generation's choices--Gerry Ford and let us add George Bush--with those of the boomer crowd:

Post-career options for healthy adults once ran the gamut from A to B & B. They could choose athletics (as in golf), like former President Gerald Ford and countless former CEOs, or run a Bed-and-Breakfast, the choices of former Senator George McGovern. Today's mature boomers aspire to be Bills: to start a foundation and champion social causes like Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. Among leading edge boomers, 50-59 years old, who say they will never retire, nearly two-thirds are interested in public purpose work.
For a nation still reeling from the economic meltdown, this is a huge opportunity. The Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act recently signed by President Obama, includes provisions encouraging boomers to embrace service careers for their next life stage.

We should add for realism purposes--that the two Bills can well afford the choices they made--since they continue to earn income as they move through the more morally uplifting worlds of philanthropy--many of us not so blessed with the skills and talents they share may have to engage in more mundane activities. But it would be interesting to hear from you dear reader as to what choices are on your mind right now.

A 1966 Liverpool Meeting Remembered

Dylan met with some Liverpool kids when on a historic European tour in May 1966--one of the children whom he was photographed with--Chris Hockenhall describes in a blog why he made this short film for the BBC. Chris remembers the day (despite being 10 years old) so well for two main reasons--"On the morning of 14 May 1966 I had been doing some extra school maths work (not my decision) with my aunt but my concentration was nil as I literally counted the minutes away to when I could get back home for the BBC showing of the Cup Final." The final was between his own team Everton and Sheffield Wednesday. Everton won the cup that year despite being two goals down at one point.


After the game he and some other "similar aged Everton fans" kicked a soccer ball around "on some waste ground on Dublin Street, near the Dock Road" when a curious Bob Dylan came across them and had some photos taken... That night, Chris adds "one of rocks greatest tours played at the Odeon and If I had been a few years older I may well have been there... and what a 24 hours that could have been — except I was oblivious to the evenings events at that time."

I wondered what I would have have made of meeting Mr Dylan at age 10? Why did he want to be photographed with these children? Was he sensing something authentic here--something hard to find in the States? Was he intrigued by the poverty and dour nature of these hard looking Victorian streets? What do the adults now make of Dylan's music? What songs, if any. touch them or speak to their experience? On a more contemporary note--where were their lawyers? Since most probably Barry Feinstein (Dylan's photographer and featured in the video below) failed to gain parental permission to take these under age children's pictures, and most probably did not compensate them for their work-- it seems odd there were no lawsuits filed.
A testament to the positive feelings for Dylan shared by this group?

Here is the little over nine minute video :