I sat in an office that was stripped bare and had holes in the walls. He explained that he was about to retire. His second retirement, actually. He was going to move back home to get another degree and write that dissertation that was in his head, combining life experiences and research. We refocused on our conversation, and he asked me, "I mean, did you ever even worry about plastic water bottles when you were a kid?"

I nodded slowly. He leaned back and said: "I remember the first Earth Day. I thought it was a joke." I told him I don't remember a time before Earth Day. Awkwardness creeped into the space between us. When I got home, because I didn't want to be impolite and whip out my phone right in his office, I found that the very first Earth Day was 14 years before I was born.

Think piece articles are ramping up to create division between the generations, in particular with the "OK, boomer" trend befuddling nearly everyone on both sides of the aisle. It's easier to be on a side, and to have a battle cry, than to sit in awkward moments when you realize there's a shift between the framework you might operate in and the concepts that come more easily to others — the moment you know that you have to overcome it together. It's much easier to dismiss the whole situation with a neat stereotype.

That gentleman and I both had to accept that we were just going to look at an issue differently. I was raised by an amalgamation of his generation and the one below it, most of whom, like him, had a decidedly lackluster enthusiasm for things like Earth Day. We "celebrated" in school, but it was shoehorned in: "Let's draw a picture of a bird in a field without rain. Perfect. Now back to trigonometry, which 70% of you will never use again."

But this division that has been spurred on, almost for entertainment, is just a distraction from the issues at hand. It's a distraction from dissecting systemic and institutionalized problems. It's a distraction from politics. It's a distraction from bettering our society.

And, it's just going to make Thanksgiving dinner conversations even more awkward. Now you have been conscripted into an army not of your choosing, and it'll be mandated to give your Gen X uncle a side eye at the table because an article whose headline you read only told you Gen Xers are just as complicit in turtle death as everyone else.

Megan Gerhardt, professor of leadership and management at the Miami University Farmer School of Business, speculates that a heightened dissociation from other generations, and a tighter cling to one's own, happens particularly when another generation is on the rise. Gen Z is now stepping into the harsh sun of judgment from not just boomers but also millennials and Gen Xers. Gerhardt finds it primal that we're all realizing we're going to be fighting for the same resources — jobs, housing, ripe avocados — and thinking we should throw some of "them" under the bus first.

"We are falling back on a shortcut in our decision making by assuming all people born during a certain time frame are universal in their beliefs and behaviors, and as a result we spend less time and effort trying to understand them," she said.

It works both ways. If I get a sense that there's an attempt to meet me in the trenches of the world, a sense that they're truly curious about my capabilities and not immediately dismissive, then I'll be right there to augment their experiences with my generation's framework. It's a concept their generation helped teach me: We are more and better when we come together.

Then, come sit next to me on the bench as we watch Gen Z and Gen X fight about what's more hip, Hydro Flasks or flannel. I'd love to hear some of those old-school zingers.

Cassie McClure is a writer, wife/mama/daughter, fan of the Oxford comma, and drinker of tequila. Some of those things relate. She can be contacted at cassie@mcclurepublications.com. To find out more about Cassie McClure and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: valelopardo at Pixabay