Wednesday, April 26th, 2006
I’m using William Grimbol’s book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Spirituality for Teens, for a session on youth spirituality in Adelaide next Thursday.
William Grimbol is pastor at Shepherd Island Presbyterian Church, New York, and for some years has worked with young people in the area through a youth centre.
Grimbol writes the way he talks - a bit like Robin Williams, if the online sermon reviews are to be believed.
I like Grimbol’s grappling with spirituality a way of experiencing life. He says that spirituality is all about awareness, being fully awake to life, mainly noticing. Spirituality, Grimbol writes, frees you to see deep into the universe that exists outside and inside, looking deep insisde yourself, others, the world, the earth, and even God. Spirituality, he says, is a vision of the best you can be, the best we can be, and the best the world can be - heaven on earth.
Spirituality, Grimbol reminds us, is not becoming less loving and more indifferent or hostile. It is not about becoming less forgiving and more judgemental, less tolereant and more intolerant, less open-minded and more rigid in your thinking, less willing to change or compromise and more inclined to be fixed in one position, less willing to make a mistake and more inclined to have to be perfect, less humble and more self-righteous, less fascinated by life’s many mysteries and more certain that you have it all figured out. As I read this section I couldn’t help thinking of the movie, Saved.
Grimbol offers some very practical approaches to spirituality for teenagers. There’s material on learning to recognise the language of the body - paying attention to lumps in the throat, goosebumps, tears, dumbstruck feeling, breathlessness and so on. He introduces the language of artistry - learning from the masters, experimenting with creation, claiming mistakes.
He goes on to explore spirituality through the five senses - vision quest, listening to your life, smelling like a rose, getting in touch, and developing good taste.
Grimbol finishes with an examination of spirituality as living the longings for home, calling, life to the fullest and forgiveness.
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Friday, April 21st, 2006
Rebecca Huntley is another Australian who has published on Gen Y this year. “The World According To Y” was published by Allen & Unwin in March 2005.
Rebecca develops a connection between the field of gender studies and generational research.
Rebecca begins with a clear sense of her own identity. She’s a member of Generation X considering the world and lives of a younger emerging generation. She’s not anxious about the weight of labels. But neither is she quick to make broad
generalisations about any generation. She’s developed the style of examining broad trends, the experiences of subcultures, and the stories of students and others she has encountered along the way. The result is a very readable walk through the journey of young adults in the early twenty first century.
I found a number of valuable conversation starters here. The phrase “Chicks before
Dicks, Bros before Hos” was used to preface one of the early chapters on friendship being valued before sexual companionship. I tested the vocab out at the dinner table and found my two older teenage children knew exactly what I was talking about. And they were able to inform me that ‘hos’ refers to the adaptation of the word ‘whores’.
There’s a strong emphasis by Huntley on gender and sexuality. That’s a helpful contribution considering that many studies of generational values overlook the distinctives found in each generation. Huntley manages to highlight diversity without discounting common experience.
The chapter on spirituality was interesting. Rebecca starts by telling the story of attending Hillsong’s ‘Powerhouse’, a rock-concert/praise and prayer session catering specifically for ages 18 to 25. She talks about the way in which Hillsong have
developed a positive message undergirded by a selfish, materialistic approach. She helpfully points out that despite the ’success’ of churches like Hillsong, Australian young adults are overwhelmingly agnostic and unlikely to attend any church. She explores possible factors - leadership marred by scandal, parents who have rejected church, and experiences of worship that are as insipid as overcooked vegetables - enough to put people off for life.
Rebecca points out that young adults, despite their materialism, do recognise a need for meaning and will explore ‘things spiritual’ in many ways. Consumption, the pursuit of material things, is clearly not enough to provide Yers with a reason to live, Huntley says.
Huntley concludes her book with her personal observations on the inter-generational relationships that will need to be developed over the coming years. Like Ryan Heath, she is concerned that Baby Boomers have and will write off the valuable contributions of the emerging generation.
Check out Rebecca Huntley’s interview with Richard Fidler online at ABC Brisbane Radio Conversation Hour: Windows Media Version
Online articles in 2005 by Rebecca Huntley
A consumer’s perspective on abortion 22/12/2005
Generation Y ripe for union picking 20/10/2005
Captain Wacky or ‘The Latham Lessons’ 6/10/2005
Barbie for president! 22/09/2005
Manhole or a personhole? A study of political correctness 30/08/2005
Political parties ignore Generation Y at their own peril 18/08/2005
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