Trying to live your heritage. It’s something I see an awful lot of people trying to do these days. Personally, I find it foolish, a sort of social signaling to others. My ancestors were this, so I’m that too. Except, you aren’t.

The further removed you are from that heritage the less you are that heritage. There has been no plains Indians since the late 1800’s. Anyone living in a teepee and doing war dances today are just pretending. The same can be said for every culture. The days of pioneers and cowboys has long since passed.

I just see all of that as an attempt to benefit from a past you never had. It can be used to gain advantage or garner sympathy. Making claim. That is what it is. I make no claims to the past, other than my own.

It’s true that my past isn’t anywhere near as exciting as those of my ancestors. I had grandparents that were round the world whalers, fought in the civil war, the war of 1812, world wars and were very accomplished tradesmen. I’m none of those, I make no claim to any of that.

We tend to label everything these days. We use terms like “boomers” and gen “x” in everyday conversation. All that begin in the early part of the twentieth century, back in the 1900’s. Gertrude Stein is credited with starting that using the phrase, “you are a lost generation” in an epigraph to Ernest Hemmingway.

Each generation has its own identity. That’s the message. I’m a boomer and that conjures an image in people’s mind. It’s not always an accurate description. I know lots of boomers that act like gen X or millennials. Some are even trying to be Gen Z or alpha!

But that brings me back to those that want to behave like generations even before the silent generation! The lost generation are those born between 1883 – 1900. No one born in that generation is alive today.

The reality is simply, you are who you are, not who your ancestors were. That’s true for the previous generation and all generations before them. You are not your heritage! Heritage is what you “inherit” from the previous generations. It belongs to them! You may enjoy pretending to be them, but you are not.

Yes, I was born in the 1900’s, I belong in the group called boomers. So just what is a boomer? Well now that all depends upon who you ask and why. Generally, it used as a derogatory term. Boomers use millennial in that fashion.

Each generation figures there’s is the best. And today the trend is to pretend that you are really from a long-ago generation. Proclaiming a heritage, an inheritance from long lost ancestors based on family stories or DNA.

Funny isn’t it. Generations thinking there generation is the best by pretending to be previous generations. Well, lots of pretending going on these days in society in general. They call it identifying. And you can identify yourself any way you like! Sounds more like a crisis to me.