Blog # 89. Me, Thee, and We: Your Guide to Thriving Across Generations

Hard to believe, but the holidays are coming up. You know, those gatherings that bring family and friends together, stirring up joy, nostalgia, and, let’s be honest, a fair bit of strife.

You might catch yourself wondering how these people see you now. You might feel a growing distance from the younger ones, even as they scroll past your stories or roll their eyes at your advice. Well-meaning friends talk about “leaving a legacy,” as if your relevance has already packed its bags and gone home.

Me, Thee, and We--Connections

It’s maddening, isn’t it? Because while the story they’re telling is one of slowing down and stepping aside, the story you’re living is still very much unfolding. You’re not done growing, contributing, or shaping what comes next. But figuring out how to do that, and how to do it with younger generations instead of just for them, is the piece most of us haven’t quite cracked.

So here’s a little phrase to guide your holiday conversations: Me, Thee, and We.

Me is about agency. It’s the part where we claim our evolving selves — not as who we were at 30 or 50, but as who we are becoming now. It’s the refusal to disappear into the background. It’s saying, “I still have curiosity, creativity, perspective, and grit to offer, and I’m not shelving any of it.”

Thee is where the ground shifts. For most of our lives, we’ve seen younger people — whether they’re our kids, students, or junior colleagues — through a lens of hierarchy. We were the ones guiding, teaching, steering. But what if we reimagined those relationships as partnerships instead? What if we stopped seeing them as “the next generation” and started seeing them as this generation, fellow travelers with energy, vision, and skills we need just as much as they need our experience?

We is where the magic happens. It’s what emerges when seasoned perspective and fresh urgency stop existing in separate silos and start building together. It’s how solutions become more creative, leadership more inclusive, and possibilities bigger than either generation could imagine alone. “We” is the antidote to age segregation — a reminder that thriving societies are co-authored across time, not handed off like batons in a relay.

Here’s the invitation: start practicing “Me, Thee, and We” in real life. Show up in spaces that mix generations — volunteer projects, collaborative work, even shared creative pursuits. Ask younger people for their ideas and truly listen to them. Offer your wisdom not as gospel, but as one piece of a larger puzzle. And most of all, let yourself be surprised by what happens when you build with, rather than for.

After all, aging in power isn’t a solo act. It’s a duet — sometimes a whole choir — that grows stronger when we stop guarding our lanes and start walking shoulder to shoulder. Together, we’re not just passing the torch. We’re lighting a bigger fire.

If that vision sparks something in you, then you’re already part of the “We.” Come find your circle of fire-starters at WonderCrone.com, where women in their third chapter are rewriting what’s possible — and inviting every generation to build the future with us.