VIEWPOINTS
Saturday, July 6, 2019
East Oregonian
A5
Finding the season that best suits you
I
was gathered together with a few of
my girlfriends around a table with
candles, and pies, and Mason jars
filled with ice cubes melting in the kind
of beverage that saturates your soul best
— water. The sky was 38 shades of beau-
tiful and china plates held sweetness in
the finest forms.
There were slips of brown paper
tucked in between the candles and suc-
culents. Slips of paper filled with beauti-
ful words written in whimsical handwrit-
ing with question marks, and discussion
points to guide our conversation. We
were celebrating friendship, fresh fruit
pies, and the season of summer.
I came home that evening with my
soul and spirit filled to the brim as I
thought about those questions — par-
ticularly the one about seasons. Sea-
sons where we’ve been refined, where
we’ve sought after purpose and less of
ourselves, and where we’ve grown in
ways we never thought possible but don’t
always see the growth until the season is
long over. The discussion of these peri-
ods of time in our lives brought so much
emotion with it that I couldn’t get it out
of my mind several hours later.
Why is it that we often want out of the
period of time we’re in, just to get the
next? Do we think it’s going to be bet-
ter than what we have right now? Are we
anticipating something greater instead
of seeing what’s beautiful and wonderful
about the present? Sadly, I think so.
This past spring was one of those sea-
sons where I found myself thankful for
the fact it was here, but questioned why
winter seemed to be hanging on with
tiny threads of unbelievable strength.
The snow had finally melted, but with the
melting came the floods. All of the mois-
ture that I knew would help things grow
seemed to be overwhelmingly brutal as
waters rose, and the sunshine just wasn’t
quite strong enough to win. I chose to
wear a yellow sweater for days in hopes
to bring the light with me that I knew
was lacking, but a yellow sweater can
only do so much.
As I answered the question that eve-
ning about what season I liked best, I
remember wishing I had been given the
question in advance to strategically plan
out a really great answer, but in all hon-
esty, conversations that work themselves
through our lives without a plan often
show us what we are really made of. So,
rather than complaining about the winter
and spring I thought would never end, I
shared with my treasured friends around
the table that night how I have found con-
tentment in each season.
I have lived, thrived, and sometimes
barely survived the seasons in my life by
simply paying attention to the beauty in
the places my feet take me each day. It’s
not always easy or even right, but instead
of wishing for what isn’t and giving up
on that which stares me right in the face,
I focus on where to look and how to look
to find the goodness that has been there
all along.
During what seemed to be never-end-
ing, ridiculously long winter and spring,
I watched calves grow and the hay shed
empty. I cheered about warm days and
soft skies. I savored the green shoots
of grass and wheat that lined the road
to home. I embraced the quiet and still
of our hillside that rolled through like
clouds. I splashed in puddles and thanked
God for sunshine, while I walked through
the barn pens in muck boots. I saw my
home from different perspectives and
angles, tore out old flower beds and cre-
ated new beauty along our fence, and
played happy music that kept my spirits
alive. I sorted cows and calves, I sifted
thousands of rocks from a dirt pile, and
prayed that my camera could capture the
beauty found when the light was just per-
fect. I looked for the good every single
day, and although it didn’t make the sea-
son perfect, it did keep my eyes focused
on that which was longing to be seen.
I don’t have any idea what kind of sea-
son you’re going through right now, but
the next time you find yourself on the
answering side of a question about the
different times of year and which one
might possibly be your favorite, I think
you should consider answering like this:
This one.
L indsay M urdock
FROM SUN UP TO SUN DOWN
Yes, this season that I’m living right
now — it is my favorite.
———
Lindsay Murdock lives and teaches
Echo.
Will Gen-Z
The biggest threat
to America is us
save the world?
T
N
here is some sort of hard-
Everything feels personalized
to-define spiritual cri-
and miniaturized. The upper reg-
sis across the land, which
isters of moral life — fighting
shows up in rising depression
for freedom, struggling to end
rates, rising mental health prob-
poverty — have been amputated
lems. A survey that the Pew
for many. The awfulness of the
Research Center released late
larger society is a given. The best
last year captures the mood.
you can do is find a small haven
Pew asked people to describe
in a heartless world. One respon-
dent said he found meaning in the
the things that bring meaning to
tiniest things: “Small-scale nature
their lives. A shocking number
— individual bugs and plants —
of respondents described lives of
are quite pleasing. I like to be
quiet despair:
“I no longer find
able to focus on things
much of anything mean-
that don’t care about me
ing, fulfilling or satisfy-
or the larger world.”
ing. Whatever used to
I’ve just finished
keep me going has gone.
a four-month tour for
I am currently struggling
my book “The Second
to find any motivation to
Mountain,” talking with
keep going.”
thousands of people,
“It would be nice to
and I certainly encoun-
D aviD
tered the disillusioned
live according to my
B rooks
America described in the
being rather than my
COMMENT
Pew survey. But the big
blackness. I will never
thing I encountered was
know how a totally
the seismic generation gap. Peo-
worthwhile life will feel because
ple my age rag on the younger
of this.”
“Drugs and alcohol are the
generation for being entitled
shining rays of light in my other-
and emotionally fragile, etc. But
wise unbearable existence.”
this generation is also seething
“I don’t feel very satisfied with
with moral passion and rebelling
my life. I’m a stay-at-home mom
against the privatization of moral-
ity so prevalent in the Boomer
and my life is endless monotony
and Gen-X generations.
and chaos.”
The Pew survey reveals a
They can be totally insuffer-
able about it. In the upscale col-
large group of Americans down
leges on the coasts, Wokeness is
the income and economic ladders
a religious revival with its own
who are suffering from economic
conception of sin (privilege) and
scarcity, social scarcity and spiri-
tual scarcity all at once. Less edu-
its own version of the Salem
cated people were less likely to
Witch Trials (online shaming).
say that friendship was a source
But the people in this movement
of meaning in their lives. They
have a sense of vocation, moral
were less likely to say hobbies
call and a rage at injustice that is
were a source of meaning, nor
legitimate rejection of what came
was learning, nor good health nor
before.
stability.
I recently met a group of high
When people overall described
school kids from around the
the sources of meaning in their
United States and Africa involved
lives, they stuck close to home.
in the Bezos Scholars program.
Nearly 70% identified family as
In our conversations they didn’t
a source of meaning, followed by
define their identity by where
career, making money and prac-
they were from, or even by their
ticing a spirituality or faith. Only
ethnicity and race. They defined
11% said learning added meaning
themselves by what project they
to their lives. Only 7% said help-
work on — serving Native Amer-
icans, working for clean water.
ing others was a meaningful part
Similarly, high school students
of their life.
If you ask philosophers how
generally are more likely to
people fill their lives with mean-
define themselves by their polit-
ical stances and their vocations,
ing, they usually point to some
rather than whether they are jocks
version of serving a cause larger
or drama kids.
than self. William James said that
I’ve also found that college
meaning was found in tireless
students are eager to talk about
struggle on behalf of some sacred
a moral project entirely absent
ideal. Susan Wolf says that mean-
ing is found in active engagement
from the Pew survey: doing
in important projects.
inner work, growing in holiness.
But the meaning of meaning
Many seem to have rediscov-
seems to have changed. When
ered the sense, buried for a few
people in this survey describe
decades, that one calling in life is
meaning, they didn’t describe
to become a better person. Your
moral causes or serving their
current self is not good enough.
community, country or God.
You have to be transformed
They described moments when
through right action.
they felt loved, satisfied or good
It’s often uncomfortable and
about themselves. They described
over the top, but we’re lucky to
positive personal emotions. As
have a rebellion against boomer
one respondent put it, “It’s easy to
quietism and moral miniaturiza-
tion. The young zealots may burn
forget what’s wrong in the world
us all in the flames of their auto-
when you are pretending to be a
da-fe, but it’s better than living
puppy with your daughter.”
It’s as if people no longer see
in a society marked by loneliness
life as something that should be
and quiet despair.
organized around a specific voca-
———
tion, a calling that is their own
David Brooks is a columnist
for The New York Times.
way of doing good in the world.
ear the close of last Wednesday’s Dem-
tions between the world’s two biggest economies
ocratic presidential debate, Chuck Todd
— the U.S. and China. Either the U.S. will per-
suade China to abandon the abusive trade practices
asked the candidates what he called “a sim-
ple question.” In “one word,” he asked, who or what
it adopted to go from poverty to middle income and
from a technology consumer to a technology pro-
is the biggest geopolitical threat to America today?
ducer, or we’re headed for a world divided by a new
Reflecting on that moment, I asked myself what
digital Berlin Wall. There will be a Chinese-con-
I would say. It didn’t take long to decide. It’s not
trolled internet and technology sphere and Ameri-
China or Russia or Iran. It’s us. We’ve become the
can versions — and every other country will have
biggest threat to ourselves.
to decide whose to join. The globalization that pro-
China, Russia, Iran and even North Korea’s
vided so much peace and prosperity for the last 70
“Little Rocket Man” aren’t going to take us down.
years will fracture.
Only we can take ourselves down.
Fourth, technology is propelling social
Only we can ensure that the American
networks and cybertools deeper and deeper
dream — the core promise we’ve made
into our lives, our privacy and our politics
to ourselves that each generation will do
— and democratizing the tools for “deep-
better than its parents — is not fulfilled,
fakes,” so that many more people can erode
because we fail to adapt in this age of
truth and trust. But the gap between the
rapidly accelerating changes in technol-
speed at which these technologies are going
ogy, markets, climates, the workplace and
deep and the ability of our analog poli-
education.
tics to develop the rules, norms and laws to
And that is nearly certain to happen if
govern them is getting wider, not narrower.
we don’t stop treating politics as enter-
T homas
tainment, if we don’t get rid of a president
That gap has to be closed to preserve our
F rieDman
who daily undermines truth and trust —
COMMENT
democracy.
the twin fuels needed to collaborate and
Fifth, today’s workplace is distin-
guished by one overriding new reality,
adapt together — if we don’t prevent the
argues Heather McGowan, an expert on the future
far left from pulling the Democrats over a cliff with
of work: “The pace of change is accelerating at
reckless ideas like erasing the criminal distinction
the exact same time that people’s work lives are
between those who enter America legally and those
elongating.”
who don’t, and if we fail to forge what political
When the efficient steam engine was devel-
analyst David Rothkopf described in a recent Daily
oped in the 1700s, McGowan explains, average life
Beast essay as “a new American majority.”
expectancy was 37 years and steam was the driv-
That’s a majority that can not only win the next
ing force in industry and business for around 100
election but can actually govern the morning after,
years. When the combustion engine and electricity
actually enable us to do big hard things, because
were harnessed in the mid-1800s, life expectancy
we have so many big hard things that need to be
was around 40 years and these technologies domi-
addressed — and big hard adaptations can only be
nated the workplace for about another century.
done quickly together.
So in both eras, notes McGowan, “you had mul-
Sounds naive? No, here’s what’s naive: thinking
tiple generations to absorb a single big change in
we’re going to be OK if we keep ignoring the big
the workplace.”
challenges barreling down on us, if we just keep
In today’s digital information age, “you have
taking turns having one party rule and the other
multiple changes in the nature of work within a
obstruct — with the result that no big, long-term
generation,” McGowan says. This dramatically
and well-thought-out adaptations get built.
increases the need for lifelong learning. “The old
Indeed, this moment reminds me of something
model was that you learned once in order to work,
that Mark Mykleby, a retired Marine colonel, said
and now we must work in order to learn continu-
in a book I co-authored in 2011 with Michael Man-
delbaum, “That Used to Be Us: How America Fell
ously,” she contends. So we’re going from a model
of “learn, work, retire” to a model of “learn, work,
Behind in the World It Invented and How We Can
Come Back”:
learn, work, learn, work.”
In that kind of world the new social contract has
“At no time in our history have our national
to be that government makes sure that the safety
challenges been as complex and long-term as those
nets and all the tools for lifelong learning are avail-
we face today.” But, he said, the most salient fea-
ture of our politics of late has been our inability “to
able to every American — but it’s on each citi-
zen to use them. This moment “is not about who to
respond coherently and effectively to obvious prob-
lems before they become crises. ... If we can’t even
blame or what to bring back or what to give away,”
have an ‘adult’ conversation, how will we fulfill the
McGowan concludes. “It is about how to create a
new deal that engages the American people to ‘take
promise of and our obligation to the Preamble of
longer strides,’” as President John F. Kennedy said
our Constitution — to ‘secure the Blessings of Lib-
erty to ourselves and our Posterity’?” How indeed?
in seeking funding for NASA. But more of that
Here are just a few of the challenges coming
striding will be on you for more of your life.
head-on:
Fortunately, the midterm elections showed us
First, if we have four more years of Trump,
that there is a potential new American majority
we’ll probably lose any chance of keeping the
out there to be assembled to meet these challenges.
global average temperature from rising only 1.5
After all, it was the independent voters, subur-
ban women and moderate Republicans — who
degrees Celsius instead of 2 degrees — which sci-
entists believe is the difference between being able
shifted their votes to Democrats, because they were
to manage the now unavoidable climate-related
appalled by Trump’s lying, racist-tinge nationalism
and divisiveness — who enabled the Democrats to
weather extremes and avoiding the unmanageable
win back the House of Representatives. That same
ones.
partnership could topple Trump.
Second, as Ray Dalio, the founder of the Bridge-
water hedge fund, recently pointed out, there has
If Democrats can choose a nominee who speaks
to our impending challenges, but who doesn’t say
been “little or no real income growth for most peo-
ple for decades. ... Prime-age workers in the bottom
irresponsible stuff about immigration or promise
60 percent have had no real (i.e., inflation-adjusted)
free stuff we can’t afford, who defines new ways
income growth since 1980.” In that same time
to work with business and energize job-creators,
frame, the “incomes for the top 10 percent have
who treats with dignity the frightened white work-
ing-class voters who abandoned them for Trump —
doubled and those of the top 1 percent have tripled.
and who understands that many, many Americans
The percentage of children who grow up to earn
are worried that we’re on the verge of a political
more than their parents has fallen from 90 percent
civil war and want someone to pull us together — I
in 1970 to 50 percent today. That’s for the popula-
tion as a whole. For most of those in the lower 60
think he or she will find a new American majority
percent, the prospects are worse.”
waiting to be assembled and empowered.
The anger over that is surely one of the things
———
that propelled Trump into office and, if not
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times colum-
nist, was awarded two Pulitzer Prizes for interna-
addressed, could propel someone even worse, like
tional reporting in Beirut and Israel and one for
Donald Trump Jr., in the future.
Third, the next four years will redefine rela-
commentary.