Philosophy

I've been reading a book on the theology of work the past couple of days, because I have to return it to the library. But I've also been dialoguing with a friend of mine in Queensland about his philosophy course, so I've been quite philosophied up recently.

I just thought I'd share a little tidbit that came to me this morning.

A friend of mine who is my age, is married, has a mortgage and is also incubating a small human. She made the comment that she couldn't believe she was doing all these 'grown up' things. I've got to admit that I often wonder how 'grown up' I am too, even though I've lived out of home for ages and have been happily married for 5 years now (no babies or mortgages on the horizon).

For those of us pushing 30, we are probably reflecting back on what our parents and those of their generation were like at this age. That is why we equate marrige, mortgages, babies and full-time work with grown-ups. I think if I do my sums properly, when my mum was my age, she had a 4 year old daughter, and was about to have a son in a year or so.

The thing is, of course, that generational change (as well as other social changes) has made people our age have different values to those of our parents. Our generation are having kids later in life, if at all (although I think the "not having kids" thing may have turned a corner in the western world, what with every 2-bit celebrity pumping out a litter). Our generation seeks work-life balance, and doesn't go for every promotion, but instead looks for a job that allows us to enjoy more of our life, or to multi-task (work + study, salary + business on the side, work + family etc).

Apparently 60-70% of people in my generation don't think they will ever be able to afford to buy a home.

I guess a lot of that compiles into one point- that we have associated 'growing up' with 'doing the things our parents did', but because we have different values, we aren't doing them quite the same, or we're doing them later, or they're not as easily available to us. That means, through no fault of the preceding generation, that we are hindering our own understanding of maturity, because we tied it to a generation we do not easily resemble.

But let's not forget a second point, which seems to crop up in my mind every now and again - that our parent's generation did not make it easy for us to step up and assume leadership and responsibility, the other markers of 'growing up'. In a lot of ways, our generation ditched that of our parents when they clung rigidly to their positions of power and influence, and we went and made our own society. It exists where our parents won't go - anywhere from the internet to outside on the streets at night. I wonder if the charismatic movement doesn't correspond in some way with the breakdown of church succession between the boomers and Gen X. I don't know enough about the history to know that. I wonder if the emerging church isn't more of the same.