Mark VanAuken

The Passing Of A Generation

A good man died the other day, perhaps one of the last of his generation.

There was no press release, no flags at half mast. He wasn’t famous or rich or powerful. He worked hard all his life and tried to live it doing what he thought was right and not always what was easy for him or quick to accomplish.

Living that way has a kind of honor to it that seems to be coming more rare these days, and I for one mourn its passing along with his.

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It seems to me like people from that generation were like that. The, “John Wayne types,” is how I usually describe them. Tom Brokaw called them, “The Greatest Generation.” They lived through a lot, from the Great Depression to World War 2. They helped to build what is now modern America, its businesses and industries.

They worked hard all their lives, and many of them didn’t make a great deal of money or get a lot of recognition. Most didn’t complain about their lot, they just knuckled up and did what they knew had to be done for their families and their country.

I learned a lot from that man and while I do express my full share of irritability on this blog, I like to believe that he passed on to me a small share of those qualities that he possessed, certainly not to the degree that he and his peers had, but enough to make a difference.