Generation Catalano: 30+<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A current generation, sensing more marginalization, cannot be classed as Gen X or Millennials, and this article -- by one of its own, Doree Shafrir --\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Generation Catalano: 30+\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A current generation, sensing more marginalization, cannot be classed as Gen X or Millennials, and this article -- by one of its own, Doree Shafrir --\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jesus Creed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-10-31T16:11:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-10-26T13:18:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Scot McKnight\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/\",\"name\":\"Generation Catalano: 30+\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-10-31T16:11:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2011-10-26T13:18:27+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\"},\"description\":\"A current generation, sensing more marginalization, cannot be classed as Gen X or Millennials, and this article -- by one of its own, Doree Shafrir --\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/2011\/10\/31\/generation-catalano\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Generation Catalano: 30+\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/\",\"name\":\"Jesus Creed\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight on Jesus and orthodox faith in the 21st century\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jesuscreed\/#\/schema\/person\/5919e847c58ffe6efb5899fb61797252\",\"name\":\"Scot McKnight\",\"description\":\"Scot McKnight is a recognized authority on the New Testament, early Christianity, and the historical Jesus. 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I\u2019m older than Noreen but younger than Mat, and neither characterization rang exactly true to me (most demographers place me and my peers at the tail end of Generation X). I was born during Jimmy Carter\u2019s presidency, a one-term administration remembered mostly for the Iran hostage crisis, the New York City blackout, and stagflation. The Carter babies\u2014anyone born between his inauguration in January 1977 and Reagan\u2019s in January 1981\u2014are now 30 to 34, and, like Carter himself, the weirdly brilliant yet deeply weird born-again Christian peanut farmer, this micro-generation is hard to pin down. We identify with some of Gen X\u2019s cynicism and suspicion of authority\u2014watching Pee-Wee Herman proclaim, \u201cI\u2019m a loner, Dottie. A rebel,\u201d will do that to a kid\u2014but we were too young to claim\u00a0Singles<\/a> <\/em>and\u00a0Reality Bites<\/a><\/em> and\u00a0Slacker<\/a><\/em> as our own (though that didn\u2019t stop me from buying the soundtracks). And, while the proud alienation of the Gen X worldview doesn\u2019t totally sit right, we certainly don\u2019t yearn for the Organization Man-like conformity that the Millennials seem to crave\u2026.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Generation X<\/a><\/em>, one of the protagonists, Andy, reflects that \u201cwe live small lives on the periphery; we are marginalized and there\u2019s a great deal in which we choose not to participate.\u201d It\u2019s no coincidence that Gen X\u2019s greatest artistic legacy is probably grunge, which is all about glorifying marginalization and alienation. Millennials, though, have been forced to live lives on the periphery, when they had always expected that they would be at the center. As Malone points out, the Fleet Foxes, led by 25-year-old Robin Pecknold, sing about thinking that they were \u201cspecial snowflakes\u201d but finding that they are in fact \u201ccogs in some great machinery.\u201d In contrast, the most famous musician from Generation Catalano is probably 34-year-old Kanye West, who actually\u00a0is<\/em> something of a special snowflake\u2014and at the same time that he has released some of the best music of the last few years (and gotten very rich off of it), he\u2019s also been engaged a very public battle with himself. Like West, Generation Catalano is never fully comfortable with its place in the world; we wander away from the periphery and back again.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also somehow apt that I would be writing this essay in the first place: In Hebrew, my name means \u201cmy generation.\u201d As I was working on the essay, I called my mom and asked if she and my dad had deliberately chosen my name because of its meaning. (I was also named after my great-grandmother Dora.) \u201cI didn\u2019t want to name you Dora, so we chose Doree. It was just a coincidence that it means \u2018my generation,\u2019 \u201d she told me. The arbitrary nature of this choice, too, seemed fitting. But maybe we\u2019re not the only ones who feel unmoored. After explaining the gist of the piece to a 29-year-old friend over email, she responded: \u201cI feel like I\u2019m especially without generation because I\u2019m not quite a Carter baby but not really a Millennial either. \u2026 I feel like Noreen, who is only two years younger than me, is of a slightly different generation, which seems crazy! But it feels true.\u201d Her email was a classic Generation Catalano move: dancing near the spotlight, and then dancing with herself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"