Remember Robert Redford in the film "The Candidate?" He wins a brutal political election, then at the end of the rib-rocking campaign stands there alone and asks himself: "Now what...?" The same question thousands of college seniors will be asking themselves this month.
In contrast to generations before them, the answer today is an infinity of answers. So many choices, so many opportunities, so many horizons just waiting for someone to snatch them. Looks like the best of all possible worlds.
The Conundrum of Choices
So why then do so many twentysomethings feel so much angst about their career choices? Is it ever possible to have too many choices? Here in the 21st C, literally thousands of careers available in hundreds of countries. For both female and male alike. However, in centuries past careers were not so much choices as they were paths. Most compassed out for them by families and traditions which flourished long before they were even born.
There was the trade union your father was in, or specific apprenticeships you were eligible for, or family expectations for marriage or medicine or the clergy. Slots carved out of the marble of life into which you were expected to -- and usually did -- fit comfortably.
So much for today's angst of the unknown. Back then you were already in a comfort zone of knowns.
Comfort or conformity
What may sound like a rigid conformity to us today, generally sounded like the siren call of security back then. Professions, vocations, husbands and wives -- most of them had already been scouted and psyched out. With or for you. Not too differently than today's best campus guidance counselors.
Who is to say which way is the best way? Times change, tastes change; but the human passion for feeling solid and safe does not change. This is why life, over the generations, is circular not linear. It's why tastes in clothes to tastes in careers often recur again and again. Each time as for the first time.
In the last measure, it may simply be a matter of at what point in the circle you happen to hop on this thing we call life. Are hats back in style...? Arranged weddings...?Stay-at-home moms...? Careful how you use the "Never" word!
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I will readily admit to having chosen a small variation on "Comfort & Conformity" in my own life [Shocking it would be to those who knew this young rebel of the sixties] .... Just as we learned as a child to not 'Spit into the wind' we also took some note of the fact it was pointless to 'lean into a right hook' ... fighting the 'tide' resulted in the early demise {and indeed death} of a number of my contemporaries .... there was precious little honour or glory in their fate ... for they chose their causes and actions poorly an with little thought to the future ... am I a coward? --- This Geezer has seen enough to resolve that though he may indeed lack courage ... He also has some moral duty to value the gift of his life ... and to live it with some sense of purpose to a better ideal ... though that "Ideal" is oft shifting and expanding ...
ReplyDeleteGeezer -- well and defensibly stated. Age adds more than years, it adds a little wisdom. At least the two of us have reason to believe so!
ReplyDeleteWell even if we are not wise Jack we are old enough to be wary .... Chuckle!
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