What's the Matter with Kids Today?

Last spring we (Highway Walkers Media) produced a short video asking people if they had a rite of passage. The responses were all over the board; coming out, losing virginity, getting married, getting a drivers license or simply not feeling like they had one. America doesn’t have a definitive secular rite of passage marking the beginning of adulthood, instead they are determined by the individuals experience. They are a ceremony of one. This is contrary to every other culture that has come before us and therefore leaves Americans with a very blurred beginning to this incredibly important chapter of life.

There are many recent blog entries and articles talking about how adolescence is now seeping well into the 20s and 30s with the blame being pointed at millennials being spoiled rotten. Well, the concept of viewing younger generations as lazy is not a recent occurrence. The 1963 musical ‘Bye Bye Birdie‘ has a duet entitled, “What’s the Matter with Kids Today?” in which Lee Adams and Charles Strouse were only echoing the multitudes of people in history that were quick to pass judgment on those who were not privileged with the wisdom of years. Although what has changed in recent decades in America is a decreased emphases on legacy, specifically traditions dealing with rites of passage. The passing down of tried and true practices that prepare children for adulthood.

Last summer Josiah and I drove over 5,500 miles to Minneapolis, NYC, Tulsa, Buffalo, Denver, St. Louis and many other places to ask people if they felt like an ‘adult‘ and if so, how and why? 

In our new project, ‘Passage’, we’re going to get to the heart of what it means to have a rite of passage today. We will take rites of passage from various cultures and time and apply them in a modern, western context in hopes of finding common ground. Suspension is an ancient practice started by the Mandan tribe that used suspending by hooks as their rite of passage into adulthood. We sat in on a suspension session to find out why this practice has survived for so long. The experience was eye opening and sometimes hard to watch. With help from some experts like Dr. Lionel Tiger from Rutgers University, Brett McKay from TheArtofManliness.com, and from leaders at the Animas Valley Institute we learned that there is more to the transition to adulthood than simply hitting a certain birthday.

That trip was an incredible time of reflection, conversation and laughter. We were always looking for common strands in which to tie the gamut of answers together. In every sense of the word, it was a‘coming of age story’ happening right in my minivan. 

When a book is condensed to the tagline; “a coming of age story” there is an outline which one must follow. Here is that outline more clearly defined by Anoka-Ramsey College:

Act One
State of innocence
Trigger/Oppressive Force
Meeting with mentor
Refusal/ denial of call

Act Two
Quest/Body of Story
Struggles with Oppressive Force
Complications
Climax

Act Three
Reward
Transformation (Individuation)
http://webs.anokaramsey.edu/wrobel/2251/Core%20Materials/Basic%20Narrative%20Structure.htm

Each act in this narrative structure has a key bullet point; meeting with mentor, quest, and reward. Likewise, every culture’s singular rite of passage has very similar requirements; separation, transition and reincorporation. Separation from the ‘tribe‘ is a state of innocence and vulnerability in which a ‘mentor‘ will tell the individual it’s time to start the journey. Transition is the quest, the time to hone valued characteristics of the participant from an oppressive force. Reincorporation is the reintroduction to the ‘tribe’. A time to start participating in that community as an adult. 

Passage will be the first film in a series to ask some hard questions, while bringing humor, about what it means to be an adult. We hope that the miles of highway will properly tell the story of the journey we’re all on. 

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