In these examples of mature fraternal life and the abundance of ritual and ceremony in societies throughout the world, we find that Generativity Three thrives and is often coupled with one or more of the other generativity roles.
Preserving
This second kind of Generativity Three enactment is about keeping something in its original state. In many instances, the act is based on a sense of home and the wish to “stay at the same home where I grew up.” As one of our Sage leaders noted: “I grew-up here and have roots and family history here. I have a lot of passion about the future of this community.” The generative motivation for these preservationist men and women is obvious and understandable. They don’t want anything to change. Such a motive can certainly lead to generativity. It can also lead to stagnation, with a sense that all change is bad and that one’s purpose in life is to resist all attempts to alter what now exists. The challenge for the preservationist with strong roots is to preserve the past while also preparing for the future. The Sage leader we just quoted indicated that he is just as passionate about the future of his community as he is about preserving his roots.
There are several ways this generative bridging between the past and future can occur. We see it taking place when the Generative members of a community seek first to identify the values and practices of the community that are worth fighting for and preserving, and then replace other values and practices that are outmoded. It is the process of discernment that we identified in Chapter Eight. We needn’t keep something because it has been around for a long time; conversely, we shouldn’t discard something without identifying the alternative to replace it that is better and is fully aligned with the values and practices we want to preserve.
In recent years, we have found both types of failure in governments throughout the world. Societies hold on to the old simply because “it has always been the way we do things” or is prescribed in sacred texts. Alternatively, societies overthrow a long-standing government without any idea what to replace it with. Fidel Castro candidly noted many years ago, after defeating the Batista government in Cuba and walking into the presidential palace, that he had been concentrating on the defeat of Batista and didn’t really have any idea about what should replace that repressive regime (Sarason, 1972).
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