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Boom Babies and the Gospel of Choice: Making Choices, Reclaiming Power and Creating Change

by C.J. R. Simons Ph.D.

166 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #05-1080; ISBN 1-4120-6179-2; US$17.95, C$20.64, EUR14.74, £10.32

Baby Boomers, are you tired of being driven around in circles? Find out how to take back the driver's seat and steer your life in the direction you choose.

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About the Book

About the Author

Excerpts

Catalogue Information

About the Book

Who's in the driver's seat of your car, Baby Boomer? Are you driving it, or have you chosen an insurance company, Social Security, or your next-door neighbor to be the driver?

Between young adulthood and middle age, the Baby Boom generation moved from a position of "I make choices" to "Someone makes choices for me." In order to return to the position of "I make choices," it's critical to understand how the process of choosing works. To this end, this book is a consideration of how Boom Babies have changed historically (Section I), as well as what the process of choosing entails.

Personal responsibility, internal and external sites of choice, energy, and instructions for energy, are the four gospels of the choosing process that are described in Section II. Six beatitudes exist for optimizing a choice, and these are the contents of Section III.

Aging Saint Boom Baby (Section IV) considers weighty topics such as time, the meaning of life and death, and how individual choices related to these issues, fit into the broader macrocosmic order. Lastly, the author examines what issues Boom Babies will address through the choosing process as well as how the book evolved (Section V).

Baby Boomers, how do you make and optimize choices? How do your individual choices fit in the big picture? And, what will you choose for your legacy?

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About the Author

C. J. R. Simons holds a Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University, with specializations in infant and child development. All of his research and publications have been centered about premature infants, how their development can be optimized, as well as how high-risk infants develop within a family context. He left a tenured position with the Pennsylvania State University (1982-2000), along with a joint appointment to the West Virginia University School of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics (1980-2000), in order to pursue other interests, one of which is writing. Honors and awards he has received include membership in Phi Beta Kappa, a scholarly excellence award from PSU, a research award from the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses, and a National Perinatal Association research award.

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Excerpts

Page 9

We of the boom-baby generation learned how to huddle under school desks and in school basements, wondering what purpose the disaster drills could possibly have. Already existing structures were designated as fall-out shelters, and new ones were built. Sliding down second floor, school fire-escape chutes was equally exciting and baffling. Was some kind of war so imminent that all of this was necessary? We were told yes and that atomic warfare could destroy entire countries as well as all of humankind. The continuing knowledge of potential war was a dark cloud which refused to dissipate even in the brightest sunshine, especially if that sunny day also brought yet another drill for impending disaster.

Page 118-119

My edginess with time also likely stems from the emergency disaster drills in elementary school, and the dazzling pronouncement that all of us could be gone in the mushroom sparkle of one atomic flash. How much of my life and choosing could I possibly entertain and have if that atomic sparkle arrived during my afternoon nap today or tomorrow morning while I was riding the school bus? If I ran as fast as possible and chose just as furiously, could I fit in a satisfactory amount of life and choosing into one day, one morning, or one afternoon?

Page 35

If we acknowledge a choice for being just that, or if we become more aware of the myriad choices we make daily, then it must likely follow that we also become more aware of our personal responsibilities for who we are and what we do. Perhaps we think it's easier or more comfortable to believe that someone else (parent, spouse, sibling, etc.) or something else (the devil, God, or my neighbor's cat) is choosing for us and therefore is responsible for who we are and what we do.

Page 164

Given what metaphysics has afforded me, I've tried to return that offering by way of describing for you the many facets of choice, both individually and in the big picture sense. Choice seems to be one of the cornerstones upon which our realities, and the world, have been built. When we understand how a foundation and cornerstone function, then I believe that our view of the entire house becomes more satisfying and useful. Properly installed and maintained cornerstones also ensure that a house fulfills its vital functions and that it does so for more than one generation of inhabitants.

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Catalogue Information

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