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Rob Glen: A Tool for Empathy

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Rob Glen reflects on his conversations with family after seeing a new film about Bob Dylan.

Over the holidays, my wife and I joined our three children for a movie night on Chestnut Street in San Francisco’s Marina District. We went to see “A Complete Unknown,” the recently released, much talked-about biopic about Bob Dylan’s breakout years as an artist in the early Sixties.

Our kids range in age from 18 to 24. One of them now lives and works in New York City. So, the combination of the Gen Z-popular Timothée Chalamet playing Dylan and the film’s Greenwich Village setting were a big draw for them.

In the end, the film did not disappoint. I came away all the more gratified to have shared the experience with members of a younger generation for whom Dylan’s impact on my own generation was ancient history.

It gave us a chance to discuss how the cultural and social changes of that era influenced not only Dylan but how they marked my own childhood. The portrayal of Dylan’s stylistic transformation from folk to electric sparked a discussion about how the edge shifted from the likes of Woody Guthrie and Pete Seeger to those of the Beatles, Grateful Dead and other future rock ‘n roll icons.

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Dylan’s chronicled struggles with identity and artistic expression inspired us to reflect on our own respective experiences with personal growth and self-discovery. We spoke in particular about how gifted individuals use their talents and how we’ve taken advantage of our own skills and aspirations.

Finally, we were able to recall our recent trips to New York, what has and hasn’t changed there from the time Dylan arrived with guitar in hand, and discuss how our own San Francisco’s evolved since the Haight-Ashbury years that the [Grateful] Dead itself so epitomized.

Our shared viewing experience of “A Complete Unknown” thus became a powerful tool for learning, empathy and family bonding. It enriched our understanding of cultural history and each other.

When occasions to hang with our kids become ever more fleeting as they age, and our oral-history telling opportunities ever more episodic, we can always use more films like this one. With a Perspective, I’m Rob Glen.

Rob Glen is a strategy consultant and local country/rock musician. He and his family live in San Francisco.

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