Feminists get a lot of negative press. I heard some just this week on a broadcast. (I almost wrote about it, but in the end, decided that both sides were just being silly and the whole conversation was unfruitful). First, I have said before that I don't identify as a card-carrying feminist. Second, there is some of that bad press deserving to be fought. There is a grain of truth in most criticism, however.
Christians get negative press too. Not in the particular show I heard, but the media has been known to not be so nice to Christians either. I do tend to identify as a Christian, because "Christ follower" or other alternatives for saying "Yes, I do love Jesus and try to follow him" make me feel pretentious. A lot of the criticism against Christians is ill-motivated and unfair. But some is dead-on.
Once again, feminists and Christians find common ground in saying "It was better in the old days!" and "It's all going downhill! These young kids aren't made of the same stuff."
Movements don't move forward in that spirit. My pastor (beloved, beloved pastor whose last sermon in our church is this Sunday - another reason this topic is on my mind) is fond of saying that you are not a good leader if you are not grooming a successor. He then provides Biblical examples of necessary torch-passing. Elijah to Elisha. Moses to Joshua. Jesus to Peter.
Sarah Boonin in her article, "Stop Thinking About Tomorrow: Building a Feminist Movement on College Campuses for Today" laments that older feminists have been reluctant to trust the leadership of the movement to the younger generation, and as a result, the movement is out of touch. They complain about the need for fresh blood, but reject giving young women real responsibility and a significant role. I have heard the same complaints in Christian circles at times too.
This is not unique to Christians or feminists. People lament about the state of our country and want to hearken back to the good old days (for a hilarious and characteristically offensive take on this, see John Oliver of the Daily Show's sketch on this.). Families do this too. Otherwise, the "I walked through the snow barefoot, uphill both ways" bit would have died out long ago. Why do we get stuck in the past?
There is a place for remembering. We learn from our past, and we can be encouraged and inspired from our past too. It can strengthen our ties to one another. But not at the expense of not trusting and building up the next generation. And sometimes, we of the passing generation hold tightly to dying causes. We try to plow forward in work that might be .... done? Or at least done in the way we were doing it?
I want to end with this idea, taken from Mark Nepo. The heart does not resist new experiences. It moves forward. We may try to stay in a memory, but it will lose its clarity around the edges and its gripping power over our emotions. A healthy heart keeps absorbing. A healthy movement or group absorbs new ideas and energy. As humans, we have another capacity besides remembering: survival. Survival requires flexibility and adaptation. It requires wholehearted investment in a new generation. Living tissue isn't brittle. It pulses with regeneration and growth.
That last paragraph...awesome. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteBecause it's a memory, it's kind of fuzzy, but I remember a part in Agatha Christie's autobiography (a good read, actually, especially for confidence building of a maybe author) that she advised not to return to a place that held especially valuable memories. It will never live up to what you remember. Something like that. It meant a lot to me when I read it.