Utkarsh Rawat is a Business Professional with a taste for old school writing and Hindustani poetry. An alumnus of the University of Delhi with a focus on Philosophy and History, his writing is an inquiry into the human condition, often blending psychological insights with philosophical outlook. He writes poetry in both Hindi and English, seeking to find the poetic rhythm within the chaos of modern context.
Life is so short, often recedes away discovering age old back and forth. Travelling same old paths. While that’s not entirely defeatist, evolving further is a better way forward in our journeys. An individual will never know it all; to stop progressing in a stream is to fall back behind. However, an order can know a lot… compounding wisdom from left and right. The family is one such Order. The family… becomes a thousand years sage and the Individual… advances light years ahead.
Abundant trends about intergenerational wealth, let’s talk about intergenerational wisdom. Keep a journal as you discover life, live well, make mistakes, and grow. Pass it on to your children.
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Write letters to your children, grandchildren, and further descendants that include appropriate wisdom for what they are facing. Be open and honest about your mistakes and how you addressed them. They will face similar things, and your solutions will help them. Tell them your learned wisdom and that you love them. Let them know what sacrifices have been made so that they can exist and how happy you are to have paid the price to produce generations. Give them advice, encouragement, and hope.
Help them see their place as links in a great chain of humans stretching back to the first man and forward to eternity.
“Letter for all descendants to be read on their 10th birthday.”
“Letter for all descendants to be read when they start adolescence.
“Letter for all descendants to be read on the day of their marriage.”
“Letter for all descendants to be read on the birth of their first child.”
“Letter for all descendants to be read on different stages of their lives”
“A Poem or Story of the previous family generations to be read aloud on the ought to be commemorated annual Family Day”
“A Note to be provided to the most exceptional members in the family”
“A Note of well wish, good fortune and insight to going to be defectors”
“ A Note for those who are not turning coats, but going on a journey of discovery away from the Order, encouraging them to return back someday to reform and enrich the Order even more “
“A Welcome to the new introductions into the family through marriage”
“A Demand of Honor from Friends and philosophical and ideological introductions who wish to join the Order”
An annual set Family Day as to become a recurring fiesta, it should specially be the day to read family history, the lives of the antecedents. Learn even about those who strayed away, or who renounced the Order, those who deserted the ideals, good or evil, Failed or Successful, Visionary or Conservatives. A day to discuss the stories, speeches, biographies and the books, creations, career, ideas of everyone who came before on diverse topics.
A day also to enthusiastically plan for the future. Never dare bury those who are different, allow dissent, allow everything individualistic, the wise ones will know when to separate the individual from the family if the individual is a problem. Separate them from the family, but make sure to document their lives estranged however. Those who join the family for decades, or those who are born into it, or those who are friends of it, will stay part of this grand memory forever.
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The Principal House of the family; could be a hut, could be a whole new world. The principle house will not be claimed to be one such… it can be multiple ones and even disputed, the one house that stays true to the ideals… and one, which manages to survive while carrying the family banner willingly through the tides of time, will obviously will be the Principal House of the family.
The Principal House at least should have a well detailed physically visible family tree starting from what they consider the first person to actually be. Like mentioned above, the new joiners, exceptional friends worthy of it can also be placed on the tree. The tree will start of in a set biological descent but its nature can change over time. As it will have to be in case of a good man, women any other person or even a special kid turns out to be the ideologically the principal face.
Often this will be proved overtime as people change, and so do their worth. It has to revert back and forth based on who proves over time to be worthy to be called the centerpiece; this obviously will be decided by the new generation after the old ceases to exist. The elders hence if seeking the family leadership as their life’s accomplishment and legacy, should rather focus on long lasting positive impacts rather than cultivating sycophants chosen ones by discriminating among their own families. The tree will be amended and extended, by the dark horses who reign in the end eventually.
Evolving upon the past adds life of those who lived before you to your own time and life… It makes you not xyz years old, but hundreds of those. It doesn’t stop at that; when it comes to wisdom and ideas, they could pierce time and space… Gracefully adopting those and then build your own lives upon that mound makes you actually a seven thousand years wise and beyond. The spirit of the great ones, not restricted to the family, can be channeled to perform in a specific manner. Even a youthful emulation of the wise makes you better if unsure or going through a phase.
Intergenerational wisdom extends beyond intellectual knowledge, to things like recipes, antiques and heritage. Make it a habit, a culture, and a tradition to read your words and life. Encourage other family members to annotate them so that the family wisdom grows and adapts over time. Keep the documents “secret” until they are to be read to create anticipation. Appoint someone responsible and older in the family as the “Keeper of the Family Lore”.
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