There are lots of ideas that come and go. Back in the 1970s and 1980s there was a process called values clarification. It was presented in different forms and was a predecessor to generational theory that later gained popularity. Morris Massey was a sought after motivational speaker for businesses who spoke on how different generations are motivated. He spoke specifically about the heroes around which people form their beliefs and views. Each person models his or her life after certain heroes who help to establish a sense of right and wrong, good and bad, normal and not normal. In an early training video he coined the phrase, “Who you are now is what you were when.”

In the early 1990s, William Strauss and Neil Howe published their book, Generations: The History of America’s Future, 1584 to 2069. In the book they presented their theory of generational differences and presented an over-simplified analysis of American history and how different generations produced different qualities and quantities of leadership. The book was a best seller and Strauss and Howe made the rounds of conferences and symposiums speaking about their theory and observations.

Each of these different ways of explaining how the world is changing has some foundation in developmental psychology. And each theory reveals part of a bigger picture. They have value, but no one theory is complete for understanding what is going on. To state it simply, developmental psychology is a theory that says that human beings form meanings, attachments, values and behavior patterns in relationship to certain phases of development. At different ages, we grow and develop in different ways, responding to different psychological needs. Among the classic interpreters of developmental psychology is Erik Erikson, who charted eight stages of psychosocial development, each with a specific conflict.

Subsequent generations of study have revealed that the arrangement of psychosocial challenges into a chart is a bit misleading. We human beings are far less linear than Erikson’s chart. We don’t always complete our tasks in the same order. We don’t always do the same things at the same age. Still a developmental model is helpful in understanding why different things are meaningful to different people and useful in learning to motivate others.

Recently I have been thinking about psychology. I am more aware than I once was that I see the world differently now than I did 20 or 40 years ago. This reality is often demonstrated when I re-read a book that had made an impression me when I was a teen or in my twenties. Reading those books now, I understand things that I didn’t notice on my first reading. Sometimes it feels as if I didn’t understand a thing that I was reading back in those days. That is a bit unnerving simply because I was operating at a fairly high intellectual level in my twenties. I was reading a lot of books, processing a lot of information and engaged in a lot of learning. I use the skills and ideas that I developed in those days as a part of my everyday life and work. My academic degrees and my status as an ordained minister are accomplishments of my twenties. Now, looking back, I realize that although I was intelligent and capable of learning, there is an awful lot that I missed.

And there are many things that I would not have been able to understand back then.

I needed more life experiences to be able to process some of the complex thoughts and ideas of others. I didn’t have much time for fiction in my teens and twenties. Although I read the assigned fiction in high school and college, I was well into my thirties before I began to really explore fiction on my own. And I was probably into my fifties before I developed an appreciation for poetry, though I read poets and even dabbled in writing poetry at a much younger age.

It seems to me that I had a mind that was more capable of logical thought when I was younger. At least I was more capable of focusing and placing ideas into logical patterns. I learned that I could retain large amounts of information by recognizing the patterns in the thoughts of others and placing ideas and concepts into categories.

But I was less skilled in interpreting analogies and metaphors in those days. I wanted to assign a single meaning to a book or idea and move on. Now I recognize that meanings are layered depth upon depth and that one never can fully explore the multiple meanings that are contained in the simplest phrase or turn of words. I am no longer able to memorize easily, but I am proficient at pondering and delving. I can take an idea and wrestle with it for weeks and still have it unresolved. The way in which I learn is definitely different than was the case when I was younger.

I decided that I may no longer be brilliant, but I am definitely eclectic. Yesterday afternoon as I prepared to listen to a concert, I made a note to myself on a sheet of sticky paper and left it attached to the dashboard of my car to remind me of things I didn’t want to forget. I enjoyed a wonderful concert of classical and contemporary music by the Rawlins piano trio. After the concert and the reception and a bit of clean up, I locked the church and went to my car. As I sat behind the wheel I began to giggle. My note was a list with three items: groceries, Hammond B3, and Albert Camus. The first item is self-explanatory. I needed to pick up a few groceries on my way home. The other two items are just ideas that I want to think about. The Hammond B3 organ dates back to the 1960s. Combined with Leslie amplified speakers it has a distinctive sound that is still sought-after for jazz and gospel music. And I recently read a short biography of Albert Camus in the Smithsonian magazine that made be believe that I needed to re-read some of his works. I read The Stranger in English, but I read the Plague in French and I was probably too young to fully understand either book when I read them.

If you think my blogs are confusing and cover a wide range of topics, you should see the sticky notes around my desk!

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