If you’re a grownup (especially thirty-plus and a parent/guardian/aunt or uncle) you, too, may have savored a sandwich meal involving no sandwiches.
A recent lunch–if that’s what you call chugging a homemade smoothie–found me checking emails on my iPad. My daughter had inquired about supplies for the curtains I was sewing for her; my mother reported that that the Etsy gift card we’d sent for her birthday was yielding mixed results (wonderful merchandise, yes; easy credit redemption process, no).
Ultimately, the curtains turned out as hoped; the Etsy snag was resolved and the desired product delivered. For those of us in the Sandwich Generation, these are
the problems we’d choose to sort out–happy ones, easily within one’s capability.
Questions we’re asked at the reference desk remind us that life in the Sandwich lane often involves weightier issues, such the one advised by U.S News & World Report’s nursing home assessment, Medicare’s Nursing Home Compare, and the Administration on Aging’s Eldercare Locator. And the oft-heard “how can my son/daughter and I speak the same language and still not communicate?” can be addressed with, among other options, the annually eye-opening Beloit College Mindset List.
Sandwich people feel doubly responsible, but on good days we celebrate successes on two fronts.
Another bonus: tips and memorable anecdotes from two diverse vantage points. My daughter recommends films and apps that I wouldn’t discover soon (or
ever). And as for the parent angle, you know how a chance remark can trigger the unspooling of a dramatic episode starring you but previously not on your radar screen due to your very young age when it occurred. Chatting with my mom recently, I observed that whooping cough is on the rise again. Her resulting memory suggests that I was one those rare children scarier as an infant than as a teen.
And that incident pales in comparison to distant ancestors’ travails. As this Bloomberg article observes, the release of 1940 census information hasn’t merely attracted researchers; it has created a volunteer bonanza. Because the initial census format is not generally searchable by name (yet), thousands of volunteers are assisting with indexing. Whether motivated by altruism or the chance of winning an iPad or Kindle, participants demonstrate massive multigenerational power.
Also at their best: favorite authors with new or soon-to-be-released family sagas. Philipp Meyer’s The Son, termed “heartstopping”, “magnificent”, “stunning”, “volcanic”, and “masterly” by critics, also garnered raves from readers at last month’s Barnes & Noble (Round Rock New Neighbors) book discussion. Amy Tan’s The Valley of Amazement (coming in November) rises to Tan’s previous standard–high praise.
One of many readers who loved Leila Meacham’s Roses and Tumbleweeds, I think that Meacham gets better with each new title (watch for Somerset, prequel to Roses in February). Jhumpa Lahiri’s much-anticipated The Lowland will be released on September 24; The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love), deemed “sweeping” and “rich”, comes out in October. Jonathan Lethem’s “illuminating” and “provocative” Dissident Gardens has just arrived at the library.
Why not represent the first generation in your clan to get your hands on these?
