Discover more from Charles Eisenstein
My son Philip is 16 years old. A few days ago we had a deep conversation about the future, about which he was feeling a persistent anxiety. Afterwards, I recorded some reflections on the conversation and put it on my sort-of-podcast called Charles Eisenstein Random, which is mostly excerpts from interviews and speeches. I’m sharing it more broadly because I think other young people, as well as those young at heart, share Philip’s anxiety and idealism. The recording is on this page.
Dropping in with Philip renews my optimism for this earth. When I was that age I had nothing remotely like his level of emotional intelligence, clarity, and sincerity of inquiry. I guess human consciousness is evolving after all! He isn’t the only young person who arouses that feeling, but he is the one I know best. The generation after mine seems to have been born into a consciousness that took my generation decades of struggle to barely achieve. For them it is second nature. When Philip says something like, “I’m trying to discern what is actually disrespectful behavior from what I’m projecting from my own resentment,” I’m like, wow, that thought literally did not exist in my peer group.
My older children (Jimi, 25, Matthew, 22) have been challenged to find their place in society. In darker moments I wonder if maybe I prepared them poorly for the real world. But I think the truth is that society doesn’t have a lot of ready-made places for the new generation, because existing institutions embody an old story, an old consciousness. So they have to create a new place for themselves, which often involves stretching or leaving the old structures. If the “real world” means a continuation of society as we have known it, then no, I don’t want to prepare them for it. I want to prepare them for the society that yet may be.
That society will only be, if we prepare for it.
Hey parents out there, let’s not try too hard to corral our children into the roles defined by the past. When they jump off the secure-future track, consider that there may be as much cause for celebration as for worry. When they spend their twenties living in our basements playing video games, let’s cheer their…. hold on, maybe I’m taking this too far. I’m not saying to retreat from the world, but to step into the new one that beckons. Maybe that does start by retreating, but that phase won’t last forever, because the life in us wants to live.
Philip’s anxiety wasn’t about how he is going to make a living. It was about whether there will be a future worthy of living in.
Words to a Young Man
I’m 47. Never found my place. Never will. I exist on the fringes of this society because I have never related to its goals and values. The primary function of a human being is to be. That’s it. Being within consciousness. All else is killing time. Be kind, be gentle, walk softly upon the earth and admire its beauty. That’s all you ever need do.
Dear Charles,
Thankyou. My youngest child, 30 year old son Dane, has recently started taking an interest in ‘men’s work’ after a tumultuous 20’s heralded with him finding his 27 year old brother Blair, my second eldest, dead by hanging…. Dane asked my boyfriend last night for 3 words he would say to his 18 year old self. I’d be very interested in any feedback from the forum here in particular males.
Speaking to the intelligence of our younger generations I’ll never forget Blair lying on the floor circa age 13, whilst doing his maths homework and turning to me frustratedly at some point asking “What are we doing this for anyway?” I proceeded to answer giving examples of how maths is actually a set of quite practical skills blah blah… when he interrupted me saying “No Mum, not maths, I’m talking about life, why are we doing this?” He was very angry about the whole situation. Blair persisted another 13 or so years, trying his best to ‘fit in’ to our demanding societal expectations, but constantly struggled with the inability to be comfortable doing so.
The plight of the young appears very sad on the whole, yet there are rays of sunshine breaking onto many of them and so I also feel greatly heartened by what I see and feel in this undercurrent of awareness as it sweeps many up in its path forging our new world.