Don is walking down main street, he is wearing his finest grey pinstripe suit, white shirt with a black tie. He went for a double windsor knot this morning, thinking this would accentuate his jaw line but truth be known he is trying to work with a sharp jaw line that is no longer there. In his youth maybe, but now his face has gotten slightly more round in nature as the years have started to show on him. He is carrying a beer crate with him and a few pages of crumpled up notes with barely legible writing.

Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow gangsters. I have been pondering a thought in recent days and weeks, taking time to evaluate my position and trying to reason out a clear thought, What is that thought I hear you ask.

Intergenerational trauma.

What is Intergenerational trauma I hear you ask? Well it is the transmission of traumatic effects from one generation to subsequent generations, impacting children and grandchildren who did not directly experience the original event. And without question it is something that plagues this world of ours. 

We all have our lineage, we all have our parents and grandparents and all the way back to those past family members who first stepped off the boat from the old country. And our forebears all started the same, off the boat, broke, picking up a job here and there, and finally finding our way into a family. They made friends, they pulled off scores and they frequented coffee shops to discuss the latest news of the day. Somebody said this in the streets, somebody got gunned down in a back alley of the city, somebody got their button, they are connected now and they are going places. 

Then the inevitable happens, a disagreement happens, someone gets paranoid, someone wants more power, someone goes rogue, WAR! And just like that one generation is gone and a new one begins. And with the new generation comes the hurt, pain and suffering that the previous generation actually lived through. The new generation talk about the previous generation's demise in the coffee shops, talk about how their parents were going right to the top only to be gunned down in their prime. And something stirs in the new generation. Anger, revenge, hate, all guiding us down a path of vengeance. And in all honesty guiding us all to a path of self destruction.

With this mind set we are born and live our lives constantly looking over our shoulders, sleeping with one eye open and never fully able to let ourselves open up to the true possibilities of this life. It makes an already tough life harder. Keeping people at distance and keeping ourselves guarded. We are also keeping our circles ever closer and they become ever smaller. Some lineages never come back and we are only interacting with the bloodlines that our forebears first interacted with. With a world of opportunity out there, are we selling ourselves short?

Can this ever not be the case? I really don't know, we are all human, and with that comes the very flaws of humanity. The trauma is real, the intergenerational trauma is real. But I do feel that for us to really thrive in this world there does come a point of accepting what happened, happened. And letting that shit go. Not that we are disrespecting our parents and grandparents, but we are more respecting ourselves in the here and now. That we are giving each and every one of us the best opportunities that this world has to offer. 

Solutions and answers to this intergenerational trauma are not easy, but by constantly repeating the same steps to expect a different outcome is some would say insanity. I am not calling any of us insane, but I am asking is there another way? A better way?

Don puts his notes in his jacket pocket and steps down from the beer crate.
 

Nivora had been about to walk past the crate that Don was standing on but decided to stick around and listen a little more closely. As he spoke a few thoughts ran through her own mind. 

I, for one, am definitely insane. However, I think this really depends on the lineages involved and the circumstances.

For instance let's say Lineage A and Lineage B have had a long history of the two lines not getting along. Linage A tries to drop it, Lineage B claims to but then proceeds to keep doing the same antics as the ancestors of that line do. Now eventually Lineage A is going to realize this and then you still end up the same way. So in this circumstance you would need both lineages to actually properly set it aside. If one refuses, it is still going to end up the same way just that Lineage A will just keep their distance from Lineage B. 

Journals have a long history of notes and incidents. Much can be set aside as desired because some things change whether it be the line or the circumstances in which their paths cross. Those are optimal and in those cases the future becomes more relevant than the past.

I am sure there are plenty of stories of just that, and plenty of the above mentioned incidents. It just comes down to what is more important to the two individuals of the lineages involved and how they want to proceed with it. Or maybe they are better off staying on opposite coasts and focusing on their chosen families and goals. 

To each their own. 
 

Don stands there, arms crossed listening to Nivora speak, As she makes her points his eyebrows raise in a quizetive manner.

Nivora my good friend, you have once again shown us your wisdom and enlightened us all. You are correct in what you say. It takes two, it takes both sides of an intergenerational feud to say enough is enough. And I would not expect anyone to act peaceful like his holiness the pope while out there somewhere plots would be made against their very existence. 

And we have to accept, in life some people just don't get along, if their ancestors were greaseball's, then as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, they will most likely be an greaseball too. 

But I do think these extreme instances would be in the minority. I would hope that as fellow gangsters, the majority of us would know that our forebears where only doing what was expected of them to be done. and that when the next generation comes along, the slate is wiped clean.