This May 19, I'll walk across the stage at a downtown arena and graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee after starting my freshman year 55 years ago in 1969.
Yes, 1969. I know. It's crazy. But it's also been eye-opening.
You see, I had to. I just got tired of kicking myself for dropping out. And also, I needed some answers. After living a looooong time, I found I still had too many questions and no one in my usual circle of wonderful family, patient friends, and fellow wonderers had the answers. You see, after all these years, I was still asking WHY.
Why do we humans continue to mess up in the same ways over and over again? (we do) Why do we not do better even when we know better like the common trope says we will? (we don't) Why do so many people still think that humans are basically bad and infallibly handicapped, condemned by original sin by a God who loves them perfectly? (we aren't) Why still can't we forgive more easily? (we can't - darn) Why are young people so impossibly blind to it all, just staring at their phones? (they aren't). Why don't younger generations fail to see how much better a handle we had on the world than they do? (We didn't. Besides, it's not the same world, dude)
I mean, humans have been wondering the same things since Diogenes held his light up to the faces of strangers in the street looking for an honest man in 300-something BCE (I knew that before I went back to college, by the way) and we still don't have many answers. Or don't we?
Actually, there are more answers to be had than I thought. Here are some of the things I learned:
- Body, soul, and spirit feel like three things (Socrates and Plato thought they were, and from them and Aristotle, Augustine built our theology), but they're not. Humans have a single perfectly cohesive existence that has lots of moving parts. (Thank you, Marty Heidegger). Either that, or life is subsumed into a continuous stream of existence we share with every other living thing (Thank you, Nagarjuna). They aren't as different as you think.
- Freedom is a two edged sword. While it brings autonomy, it also brings so many mind-numbing choices that it's beginning to paralyze the modern consciousness so that it feels like the only thing for GenZ to do is to hide their heads in escapism in an effort to stay sane.
- When examined closely, life gets more and more absurd. The point of doing Philosophy is to find a reason not to commit suicide. (Thank you, Camus)
- Social media was made to be the perfect place to share laughing babies and mutual victories, but has become the Valley of Despair.
- Modern people are monetized at every turn. Our value to our social system isn't who we are but what we spend. Count the ads on your newsfeed sometime.
- We might be in danger of becoming slaves to our own algorithms. (Alexa is always listening. You know she is.)
- The pace of life has increased to the point where it feels like we are constantly racing toward nowhere.
- The pandemic scared us to our core.
No wonder 20-somethings have been hiding. They're terrified. They still have a whole life to live and they're not sure how to do it.
- They understand that Socrates was right. The unexamined life is not worth living and they are on the brink of that examination.
And in examining it, we find that in spite of all the terror and confusion, people, all of us, are infused with a dazzling glory - a kind of radiance that gives hope even in the face of all the weirdness of life. If we have the courage, even once in a while, to look at the hard questions together, we may not be able to solve them all but at least we'll be together. Even after all the desperation, if we have the courage to be honest together, good things happen.
And they happened right in front of me. In classrooms. In coffee shops. In chance meetings in the Union. In the caring, brilliant natures of several professors, but one in particular. I will not forget the grace he showed me. In intentional, unpredictable friendships between me and smart, insightful young people who ended up wanting the same things I did and were willing to talk about what might be done to make this world a better place.
In the process, I found out how to care about those young people. They are much smarter, much kinder, and much more thoughtful than I think we were at the same age. Remember saying "Don't trust anyone over 30" and meaning it? They don't. They not only respected me, they made me their friend. And they made me want to do something for them in return.
So I'm going to. I advise you to do it, too. Listening, really listening, would be a good start.
More on that later. For now, I'm just going to finish the semester and celebrate. If you want the details, and a taste of some of the wonderful people I met, the link to the University article appears below. Thanks for asking, Pat Kaasa.
Click here to connect to the full article.
