Older and wiser

I suspect that perhaps the word 'maturity' would cover the 'older and wiser' dilemma, at least in this instance.

Maturity is good. The first thing that came to my mind is experienced. More worldly could also be appropriate.

Regards,
Martin

The meaning being looked for is not necessarily wiser or more mature, but a difference that encompasses different experiences, different cultures (e.g.Alabama and New York City) and other changes. Given the acceleration of change in society today it seems necessary to have a word to cover this concept. To me maturity means wiser, older and more experienced (more worldly) and thus does not cover this situation. With a generational difference both parties can say there is a generational difference, without inferring superiority.

I think I understand the concept -- the object of my affections is 12 years older than I, and sometimes our misunderstandings stem not from a lack of maturity or experience on my part, but from having been shaped by different cultural time periods. We occasionally speak a different generlect (can I make that up? If the language of an individual is his/her idiolect, why can't the language of a generation be its generlect?)

[Disclaimer: I work in the computer industry and therefore sometimes have a skewed sense of how regular people usually talk.]

I've been known to snidely refer to people as being "in beta" (straight out of college) versus Version 4.0, etc. In this case perhaps a person could be a later release than their significant other; enhanced features, better integration, fewer bugs.

Interesting point. But then again, in my experience a computer doesn't seem to crash much when it's new ...

On 10/7/99 11:53:25 AM, Barbara Wallraff wrote:
>Michael Mattinson, of Nashua,
>N.H., writes: "I was asked if
>I knew a word for the
>difference in knowledge and
>experience that occurs as in a
>generational gap but without
>such an age difference.

"cultural gap". no reference to age, no hierarchy.