Recently I've had occasion to talk with some old friends and colleagues, some of whom I haven't spoken to in two decades. Naturally, in the course of playing catch-up, we talked about our kids, all young adults trying to make their way in the world. As a result, I've come to see modern life as pretty toxic and dysfunctional and to wonder what our legacy to our kids really is.

I'm not talking about environmental or economic issues, although those issues exist as well. I'm talking about the frenzy and frustration of daily life.

Nearly everyone had a story to tell about how their kids are trying to cope - with city life, with negotiating healthy relationships, with balancing love and work in a culture that calls such striving “lack of ambition.” These bright, well-educated, and career-oriented, if not career-driven, people are also politically savvy purveyors of the landscape looming large before them, and a lot of them don't like what they see.

Some say they feel “trapped” in a world without values. Others think a career change might give their lives more meaning or a new relationship might reinvigorate them. But the subtle subtext - the back story, if you will - the common denominator is that these thirtysomethings are feeling scared about their futures and suffocated by systems and expectations they didn't expect to face.