| September 2007 |
Vol 8, Issue 31 |
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 Get Ready to Lead!
"It's simple. We're just changing the world."
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| Greetings! |
 We often hear about teenagers who refuse to act like adults. But what about adults who refuse to act like adults? The call goes out--to "grow up" and set a good example--in this edition of Get Ready to Lead! |
| Will the "death of the grown-up" lead to the death of Western Civilization? |
 Diana West hits hard for a girl. And she does it all with a word processor. Her recent book The Death of the Grown-up challenges one of the fundamental assumptions of the modern age, namely, that it is a good thing to seek youth and embrace immaturity.
Taking note of people who are concerned with the passing of the baton from one generation to the next, she says:
Even as age has been eliminated from the aging process, they have a hunch that society has stamped out more than gray hair, smile lines, and cellulite. What has also disappeared is an appreciation for what goes along with maturity: forbearance and honor, patience and responsibility, perspective and wisdom, sobriety, decorum, and manners--and the wisdom to know what is "appropriate," and when. So what is the solution? It's simple, according to West: learn to say "no." In the Epilogue she calls to mind the first issue of National Review, from 1955, in which William F. Buckley wrote,
If National Review is superfluous, it is so for very different reasons: It stands athwart history, yelling Stop, at a time when no one is inclined to do so, or to have much patience with those who so urge it.
Maybe I'm becoming a dinosaur, but in recent weeks I've found lots of practical ways to apply this advice: saying "no" to a speaking engagement that would take me away from my family for too long, asking a restaurant server to turn down the music that was unnecessarily loud and impeding conversation, and turning around to two non-adult men in an airplane and asking them to refrain from using vulgar language.
In each case, I was grateful to have my entreaties accepted gracefully. It wasn't nearly has hard as I thought it would be to say "no," and I'm getting used to it. In fact, I'm starting to like it! |
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| What makes a person an adult, anyway? |
 Diane Dumas and Robert Epstein reviewed academic literature, interviewed adults, and consulted with professionals before concluding that there are 14 different "competencies" that distinguish adults from non-adults:
- Love. Adults know the difference between sex and love and know what it means to experience love.
- Sex. Adults know about making babies, about self-control, about being pure.
- Leadership. Adults know how to act as leaders of others adults, of children, of pets.
- Problem solving. Adults know the difference between right and wrong and are able to solve a wide variety of problems.
- Physical abilities. Adults are supposed to be physically self-sufficient.
- Verbal and math skills. Adults know "reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic" and can apply what they know to their stewardship of time and money.
- Interpersonal skills. Adults know how to converse with, show respect for, forgive, apologize to, get along with, and assist other people.
- Handling responsibility. Adults know to accept blame for their wrongdoing and how to honor the commitments they've made.
- Managing high-risk behaviors. Adults know how to handle risky items and activities responsibly.
- Managing work and money. Adults know how to get and keep jobs.
- Education. Adults have obtained a basic education and know its value.
- Personal care. Adults practice basic hygiene and good nutrition.
- Self management. Adults can mange their own behavior: keeping appointments, accomplishing tasks, and preventing their anger from getting out of control.
- Citizenship. Adults know about government and how to be good citizens.
Source: Robert Epstein, The Case Against Adolescence (Sanger, CA: Quill Driver, 2007), pp. 148-157. |
| Stupid adult tricks: statistics you won't believe |
 Did you know:
- More adults, ages eighteen to forty-nine, watch the Cartoon Network than watch CNN.
- The average video gamester was eighteen in 1990; now he's going on thirty.
- The National Academy of Sciences has redefined adolescence as the period extending from the onset of puberty, around twelve, to age thirty.
- In Italy, nearly one in three thirty-somethings have still not left home.
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 A person said to me the other day, "All of the things you talk about are so serious. Isn't there any room for having fun?" I honestly don't remember my specific response, but it was something like this: "Joy comes not from finding ways to skirt God's plan, but by living in harmony with it."
We in the Get Ready to Lead community know how frail we are. Yet we hold to a rock-ribbed conviction that God uses everyday people to have a profound influence on the world. So make this a great week--a fun week of being a blessing, in a grown-up fashion of course!
I hope you like this new format for the newsletter. I would appreciate your taking five to ten minutes to complete a survey that will help us know how to best serve you through this weekly email. Click here to get started.
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