Our culture tends to worship the idea of youth.
This can be seen in numerous places, numerous ways. We could, for instance, watch television and see the ideals flashing back and forth across the screen. They are revealed through commercials that feature youthful actors and seem to whisper (sometimes aloud),
"You can be like us. You can have what we have because we all know it's better." The word "rejeuvenating" is featured periodically. Middle-aging men and women dye their hair and whiten their teeth. Then there are TV shows and movies, but I think you see what I mean. I will say, though, that it seems to me there is a considerable chunk of shows and movies--take chick flicks, for instance--portraying disillusioned business-folk trying to escape in some way from gray routine. They chase the vanished and nearly-elusive form of happiness their current lives aren't providing, whether through a new relationship (often involving the dissolution of an old one), the decision to pursue their dream career, or who knows what. Then there are those which allow us to dream about being more than we are and doing something that seems more exciting than everyday life (action, spies, superheroes, fantasy, sci fi, etc). It really does seem to be about the treasure-hunt for happiness, and in a country where convenience must be the road to get us just about everywhere, I see that echoed in the culture around me (or perhaps the media echoes the culture...it's hard to say). Just look at the climbing divorce rate, the plethora of fast-food, restaurants, and even church denominations.
If they don't have what I want here, I'll just go next door.
What, then, makes the idea of youth so attractive?
Among other things, I think a major one is the concept of freedom. This means a few important things.
First, there is freedom of opportunity. As children we are told (and this is not always true or even reasonable) we can be whatever, whomever, we want to be; do whatever whatever want to do.
Chase your dreams: if you try hard enough anything is possible! There is hope, a vision of boundless, optimistic opportunity right around the corner. Any obstacles can be overcome if you just try hard enough.
And there is the freedom of time. Even if things aren't quite right now, there's time for more chances. There's even time to waste. Youth is energy, optimism, life, health and love and
happiness...right? And somehow I think there's a vision, too, of this freedom without the burden of much responsibility:
it's my life, my choice how to live it. Oh, it might affect other people, but in the end it's just me and my own life, and that's what matters.
And it's problematic.
It's problematic because reality doesn't actually work that way--not exactly.
Perhaps the young are sometimes healthier, and perhaps we have delusions of invincibility, but at the end of the day, it's not real. I think of my supervisor at work this summer who died suddenly at the age of twenty-two. A young boy whose life dwindled away before us from leukemia--a boy of twelve, thirteen, who shuffled around slowly like an old man, face swelled from medication. Despite our prayers, despite his youth, he died at thirteen or fourteen years old. The girl next door to me this year who was recently diagnosed with cancer. She just turned eighteen and has just begun her first year of college.
And this is middle-class United States. Oh, we wouldn't consider ourselves wealthy, but we have access to hospitals and health care and it's still not enough.
Honestly, I can't imagining living in this world without the hope of Christ.
Also, I think this golden-tinted concept of youth confuses my generation--that is, we who are young.
As a child, our games and make-believe worlds imitate life. Not strictly, of course, but often we are put in what-if situations and we act them out. We played dress-up, store, president, artists, doctor, explorers, town (with an economy), vet, school, made inventions, wrote newspapers, etc. In some sense, consciously or not, we were playing at growing up and exploring the adult world. And maybe my sisters and I were exceptions. But I think all children like feeling grown-up sometimes.
Then, somewhere in highschool or so, we see these portrayals of adult life as undesirable, unfulfilling, and pick up the idea that while we are preparing to grow up, adults are trying to be young.
Yet I think most of my peers harbor few illusions about the harder realities of life to some extent or another. And we are unsatisfied, unfulfilled. And suddenly, instead of adulthood looking like the fulfillment of a life (as I'd say it's portrayed biblically), it's looking uneasily like a sort of slope.
Give it a few years and I guess it's all downhill from here.
Quite frankly, that's not only confusing but depressing. So we say,
Now what? We grasp that we're supposed to enjoy "life" while we have it, as we are young. The "real world" will come soon enough. So my generation is into parties and drinking, serial dating and sex, some sort of thrill that we're supposed to find.
Do they find it? Maybe. I don't really know. And maybe I'm wrong about all this. But it seems to make sense. I think there's a lot of confusion in my generation. The worship of youth reveals the unhappiness and dissatisfaction of the older generation, and the unhappy, dissatisfied younger generation absorbs this and doesn't know what to do. Add in the current economy, unemployment, etc, and more joy is lost. Not to mention the dimished sense of purpose in the world.
I'm trying to remember exactly where I was going with this, but as it's rather late I'll revisit the topic if I think of something else.
I guess I'm just extraordinarily thankful I was raised in the hope of Christ and taught to find fulfillment and purpose as well as joy.
But I haven't a clue where one would start turning it all around....
