Every generation is shaped by a different world. This piece opens the Generational Clues series by asking what might happen if we stopped judging one another long enough to listen.

Every decade asks a different question of us, and most family conflict comes from two people answering different ones. This is the introduction to the Generational Clues series, a decade-by-decade look at what each season of life is quietly asking of us, from the 20s through the 70s and beyond.

Every generation has a language. Some speak in duty, some in achievement, some in independence, some in meaning, some in authenticity, and some are growing up inside the language of screens. Before we dismiss another generation, we may need to understand what their world taught them to protect, hide, and survive.