It’s 11:39 PM on a Monday night. My body is tired, but my brain is ready for important musings and oddly random thoughts. Be very afraid:
(1) On the food-as-theater show America’s Iron Chef the “secret ingredient” the dueling chefs must use to create 5 dishes ranges from terrifying fish that look like they could chew through your jugular to the more prosaic garlic. My husband and I thought it would be more realistic if the secret ingredient was Cool Whip or Cream of Mushroom soup. Or maybe you have some yummy ideas. Share them in a comment below.
(2) In other food-related news, Aldi is now running TV commercials. Aldi stores don’t even have phone numbers. (Go ahead and try looking it up. See?) What conclusion are we to draw from this?
(3) I recently read a provocative statement that suggests that Boomers embraced adulthood because it meant freedom and independence – and that our children are terrified of adulthood because it means the end of their freedom and independence. Do you agree or disagree?
(4) When we went to our first homeschool convention in 1990 (could have been 1989), there was a small vendor booth from the Fellowship of St. James in Chicago. We attended the convention for years afterward, but these folks never returned. My husband Bill grabbed a sample of their St. James Daily Devotional Guide that year and has been using it ever since. I’ve been using it for the last several years as well. This Bible-reading plan follows the Christian year, gives you several Psalms to pray through/worship with each day, and at the same time taking you systematically through Scripture at a comfortable pace. And the occasional notes (think Biblical or church history done with a devotional slant) are thoughtful illuminations on one of the day’s texts. If you’re looking for something a little different than the “Through The Bible In A Year” you’ve attempted the last few years, you might want to check this out.
(5) When you think of “home”, where is it? Why? (And saying “heaven” in a second-grade Sunday School voice is not an acceptable answer.) I have been meditating on the concept of home recently, and some surprising thoughts have been forming. Stay tuned.
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I think it has to do with opportunities this generation has been given. We went to school, to earn a degree, to enter into a career, which translated into freedom (to earn) and independence (from the structures of school and family life). Now students realize they might experience possibly multiple careers. Thus entering the workforce translates into a loss of exploration and in some ways bereavement over the freedom to choose.
Notice my dilemma, preaching to two serpent generations, sitting side by side, whose world view is diametrically opposed. St. Paul’s word “I can be all things to all people” made him a saint!
I think young adults walk into adulthood with greater debt (school and credit card) than we Boomers did. They often have a more difficult time than we did finding that first “career” job after college – there’s a lot of baristas out there with bachelor and master’s degrees. They marry later, if they marry at all. They’re living in a different social and economic climate – and that climate makes adulthood look like loss of freedom, not independence.
How to be relevant (an overused word if ever there was one) to multiple generations – a constant tightrope walk! 🙂
So many questions!
Love the Cool Whip/Cr. of Mushroom Soup idea. I do tire of picking up a Better Homes, or Family Circle and realizing that most of the recipes contain ingredients that I not only don’t have, but aren’t available in my town. Even at Aldi. Or at stores with phones.
I do think our children see adulthood as the loss of freedom. I remember the first time I volunteered for something at my kids Christian elementary school. The classroom was mass chaos. Kids talking, getting up and sharpening pencils, randomly standing up apparently just to stand, etc. and the young teacher oblivious. I knew I would have learned little in that environment. Many kids grow up having been given a free reign at home and at school. The kid who thinks things through, ponders actions, reads (!), and listens is seen, even by many adults, as a time waster/dreamer. You must be doing something at all times. All motion is percieved as good; all activity as moving forward. The adults who should be role models to the young are trying so hard to seem hip and still with it, that kids have no concept of what adulthood should be. The parents are refusing to grow up, too. How many times have I heard of parents attending rock concerts with their kids? Or an adult making light of some teen-age indiscrection because they did it, too, but without the logical next step of realizing, with an adult perspective, that mistakes were made. I cannot, in even my wildest dreams, imagine that happening in my house growning up. As as churches try to be relevant, many simply feed into this Boomer need to show that they’ve still “got it” even though most of them don’t have a clue what “it” is, and end up looking silly. No wonder kids see growing up as less than desireable.
Didn’t we boomers have the lyrics to “My Generation” burned into our souls? “Hope I die before I get old” we sang. And so, to stave mean ol’ maturity off, you get Peter Pan Parents being their kids’ buddies.
That you’re aware of the problem tells me you’re not part of the problem. (But it also means you’re probably not always the Cool Mom. And I think you’re probably OK with that!)
Blessings on you and your family, Suzanne.
Michelle,
Your weekly voicing of this prayer is healthy. Through my self centered rose colored eyes I discount the sin in my life.
It was a great reminder for me to confess my sins more often.
Otto
Thanks, Otto! I’ve found that prayer of confession is like a giant speed bump that slows me down, forces me to reflect, and places me truthfully before God.