William Bergquist and Gary Quehl
[Note: The complete book (Caring Deeply: Engaging the Four Roles of Life-Fulfilling Generativity) is available for purchase. Use the following link: Caring Deeply.]
This essay and the next are filled to the brim with diverse acts of generativity, because we think the acts of Generativity Three are least likely to be identified, classified or fully appreciated. We identify eight modes of Generativity Three, but expect there are many more:
(1) Offering ceremony (celebrations, parades and other ritual enactments).
(2) Preserving (keeping something in its original state).
(3) Displaying (allowing people to observe the preserved object).
(4) Honoring (setting aside a specific day or product in recognition of the contribution made by a specific person, group or event).
(5) Consecrating (setting aside a specific place where an important event occurred or setting aside a specific place that is related tangibly to a specific person or group).
(6) Gathering (bringing together people on regular basis who have shared a profound experience).
(7) Preserving values (providing clarity, representation, demonstration, monitoring or reinforcement of specific, cherished values).
(8) Story-telling (sharing the history of specific people, events, traditions).
In these two essays we explore each of these acts of Generativity Three, deploying our Four Featured Players and the interviews we conducted with our Sage leaders. We also look at other examples of the eight forms of guardianship we have witnessed in our own lives, among our friends, and in various written accounts.
We explore the first four acts of Generativity Three in this essay and begin with ceremony.
Ceremony
Many years ago a social analyst, Johan Huizinga (1968), propose that a unique feature of human beings is their ability to play and make believe. He used the term, homo ludens, to identify this special capacity. While many other animals spend considerable time in playful activities, human beings play in a particularly “big way” through the invention of elaborate ceremonies, parades, and other rituals. We know how to put on a good show and have invented many devices (e.g., movies, television, sporting events) to make them even bigger and more accessible to an expanding public.
Obviously, many of the big shows are intended for nothing more than entertainment. However, at other times these shows are meant to honor a person, event, community, or entire nation. We pass on a tradition through use of ritual. We initiate a young person through a rite of passage and ceremony. In many instances, initiation processes are coupled with Generativity Two mentoring. But there is something more than just mentoring that is involved in these initiation processes; the ceremonies are tangible manifestations of the tradition into which the young person is being initiated.
Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts have abundant ceremony, honoring the young person’s achievement of specific competencies (merit badges and ranks). A variant on the scouting initiation process is also found in the YMCA and YWCA. These organizations honor young men and women at the start of their journey. Called the “Ragger” ceremony, the young man or woman receives a “rag” (kerchief) that is bestowed as a challenge for the initiate to meet an ambitious goal they have set for themselves. The kerchief is only a “rag” until the goal has been achieved. The young person then sets another goal and receives a different color kerchief that represents an even more ambitious personal aim. The Ragger ceremony, like the scouting ceremonies, uses the traditions and value system of YMCA/YWCA to encourage further development of the young person with the assistance of a Generativity Two mentor.At a personal level both of us participated in scouting. One of us also was initiated as a young man into the Order of the Arrow (an initiation process engaged by the Boy Scouts now known as Arrow of Light), and one of us was raised by a father who proudly noted that he was “the first Eagle Scout in North Dakota” (a picture of grandpa in his 1920 scouting outfit is treasured). We were both initiated into fraternal organizations while college students. As we reflect on our personal experiences, there is clear evidence that each of us absorbed the values and priorities of these organization. We still remember the pledges, chats, and songs from these earlier life experiences. While some of these values and priorities are no longer aligned with our mature values and priorities, they do provide a foundation for our personal sense of history and continuity. These experiences motivate both of us to “pay it forward” in our Generativity Three activities.
Obviously, Homo ludens is not exclusively a phenomenon of youth initiation, nor is it exclusively an American experience. We find similar ceremonial processes in various fraternal organizations that exist outside the collegiate setting. Two of the most notable are the Masonic Order and the Knights of Columbus. Deeply emotional and richly historical ceremonies reside at the heart of these fraternal orders, with secrecy further enhancing their appeal (and perceived threat). Even more commonly, we see homo ludens displayed in the many parades that are staged throughout the world in any given year. In the United States we can watch or participate in the Rose Parade that is held and broadcast on New Year’s Day; for many years, families of the founders of Los Angeles rode horses in the parade with great equestrian splendor. At another time of year, Americans honor those who have defended our country with Veterans’ Day parades; flags are in abundance, as are marching bands, corps of Veteran associations, and specific veterans being honored (often as “marshals” of the parade).
As Americans, we are sometimes envious of rich homo ludian societies and try to emulate their traditions. In many instances, this attempt to resurrect and re-enact lost traditions is done on behalf of those who come from the culture that once offered this ceremony. One of us, for instance, recently chaired a dissertation committee with a doctoral student who focused on the ceremony-based mentoring of young African American women in their own African tradition. A similar program has been established throughout the United States for African American males, who often don’t have a strong male parenting figure in their life. One of our Sage leaders describes his work with the local Maidu tribe in California. He assists them with their “calling back the salmon” ceremony. Sadly, it is often someone from outside a “dying” culture (an anthropologist or folklorist) who is teaching the lost ceremony to the indigenous people—the irony of “postmodern life” (Anderson, 1995)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).A second way in which the preservationist bridge can be built between the past and future has to do with the establishment of sanctuaries—areas with boundaries in which the old is preserved while the new can flourish all around it. We are not referring to the faux-sanctuaries of yesterday-ville in places like Disneyland, Disneyworld, and Knotts Berry Farm. Rather, we are pointing to places like the French Quarter in New Orleans or the inner city of Tallinn, Estonia (one of the original Hanseatic League cities in Europe). These are preserved sectors within cities that are otherwise modern. Sustained through the use of strictly enforced building codes and often highly priced real estate within the preserved sectors, these sanctuaries attract tourists and enable fortunate inhabitants to have a life that is embedded in both the old and new—what is now often called a “postmodern” way of living.
A third bridge for preservationists is built around one of the other seven enactments of Generativity Three. The preservation of an old tradition can take place through engagement of a regularly occurring ceremony that preserves long-standing traditions, such as the Friday night Jewish Shabbat. It can also be engaged through the designation of sacred places where specific rituals are preserved and enacted—such as the high mass in Catholic cathedrals. In the Islam religion, a series of daily prayers are enacted and traditions preserved either in a majestic Mosque or on a simple prayer rug located in the observant’s home or office. Such forms of preservation align directly with the power of the tangible culture motivation that we identified in Chapter Nine. Particular physical and verbal actions, often occurring in specified sacred locations, enhance the sense of preservation and do honor to the nature of the traditions that lie behind them.
We have reviewed but a few of the ways in which preservation of the old and revered take place in societies throughout the world. Now we move on to a second kind of preservation: the preservation of land in its natural state. There is an abundance of land preservation initiatives in the United States, beginning with the National Parks. As noted in the informative documentary produced by Ken Burns, the United States was at the forefront in declaring that beautiful, natural settings should be preserved and made available to all citizens (unlike conditions that existed at the time in Europe where places of beauty were often owned by the wealthy aristocracy who blocked all public access). National political leaders like Teddy Roosevelt, advocate naturalists like John Muir, and wealthy business leaders like John D. Rockefeller joined together to provide the generative power and resources needed to enable much of the most beautiful land in the United States to be set aside and preserved as national parks and monuments.
Many other areas in the United States have been set aside for natural preservation. One of our favorites is Baxter State Park in Maine. The park was established by 28 donations of land, in trust, from former governor Percival Baxter between the years of 1931 and 1962 (eventually creating a park of over 200,000 acres). As governor, Baxter unsuccessfully campaigned for the direct purchase of this land by the state government. After leaving office, he bought the land himself for public use but outside formal government control. As a result, Baxter Park is not part of the Maine State Park system. Rather it is governed by the Baxter State Park Authority, consisting of the Maine Attorney General, the Maine Commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, and Director of the Maine Forest Service.
There are now even greater initiatives occurring throughout the world to preserve land. One of the most ambitious and well-documented is the purchase and preservation of substantial land (equal in size to Yellowstone National Park) in a region of the West coast of South America known as Patagonia. A husband-and-wife team (Kristine and Douglas Tompkins), who had been very successful entrepreneurs in the United States, began purchasing this beautiful but vulnerable land before it could be altered with dams, tourism, and urban sprawl. Established as Conservacion Patagonica, this large-scale preservation initiative has attracted donors and environmental activists from across the world. The sportswear that many of us wear (“Patagonia”) was the original funding source for Conservacion Patagonica. We find an extraordinarily ambitious realization of the Generativity Three spirit in the work of the Tomkins and their preservation-oriented colleagues.
We can also turn to much more focused efforts at preservation of a natural state. Many of the zoos around the world are now in the business of preserving specific species from extinction. The Atlanta Zoo, like many others, goes even further by asking the general public to assist with the preservation. For instance, a visitor to this zoo can insert a credit card in a display adjacent to the gorilla exhibit that transfers money to an organization in Africa that is fighting to preserve the existing wild habitats of the gorilla. At an even more dramatic and potentially human-preservation level is the Svalbard project in Norway, where seeds from throughout the world are being stored and preserved in sub-freezing temperatures to ensure that humankind will always have access to the plants needed for our survival.
Among our Sage leaders we find several striking examples of dedicated women and men who seek to preserve the natural beauty and heritage of the resplendent environment in which Nevada County California is located (called “the gold country” and situated in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains). One of our Emerging Sage leaders grew up in Nevada County and returned to it twenty years later to become Executive Director of the South Yuba River Citizen’s League (SYRCL). He had previously worked for a conservation corps in the San Francisco Bay Area—but found the prospect of leading a major project back home to be more enticing. In his role as Executive Director, he focused on building a coalition rather than going it alone in preserving the Yuba River region: “[I am particularly proud of] our partnership with the largest aggregate company in the United States, which is located on the river. What’s been so rewarding is the unorthodox partnerships that we have created for the common community good.”
The Executive Director is pleased with the work his organization has done and acknowledges the successful role played by another organization:
There are at least three dozen places in the Sierras that will remain as they are today in perpetuity, because either South Yuba River Citizen’s League or the Sierra Fund made this happen. I very much enjoy knowing that my kids are going to be able to go to Purden Crossing, or Spencerville Wildlife Preserve, or Donner Pass, or Bald Mountain, or the Truckee River, or any of these other projects for which I provided leadership. This makes me very happy.
While we can marvel at the ambition and sometimes success of the aforementioned major preservation projects, we are also able to appreciate the smaller and more immediate acts of preservation. Examples include rescuing abused dogs or “rescuing” old furniture from an antique shop and restoring it to its former beauty. We even find ambitious men and women who rescue and restore homes. While some of these acts of restoration and preservation are motivated primary by potential financial rewards (“flipping homes”), a great deal of pleasure can be derived from taking pride in the restored object. We live on through our preservation. We “preserve” ourselves, while preserving objects.
Displaying
A third form of Generativity Three involves not just preserving something; it is about also allowing other people to see the preserved object. The observation might be visual in nature, such as appreciating a work of art or beautiful photography. It might also be an aural form of observation. Music is usually about something that has already been created. Generativity Three is particularly in operation when the music being played comes from the distant past. Classical music comes immediately to mind, but we can also turn to popular music of the early and mid-20th Century. One of us lives in the State of Maine, which has the oldest average population in the United States. Many of its residents “remember the good old days” when popular music was steeped in such pre-rock-and-roll genres as swing music, sweet music, and bebop. Broadway musicals were also flourishing during the 1930s, 40s and 50s, producing standards written by Irving Berlin, Cole Porter and music teams like Kern and Hammerstein, Rogers and Hart, Rogers and Hammerstein, and Lerner and Lowe.
In Maine, recordings of this kind of music are begin cared for and displayed (broadcast) by two independent radio stations that offer no commercials. One of these stations is privately owned by Bob Ventner, who plays music of the 1940s through the 1960s. He asks for donations once a year to cover the costs of operating the station but takes no salary himself (exemplifying the enactment of Generativity Three). A second station (WYAR) is a nonprofit that is run by volunteers and plays music from the first half of the Twentieth Century, the 1920’s through the 1950’s. As the announcers indicate: it is the only station to play music by Tex Beneke, Harry Belafonte, Bix Beiderbecke, Helen Morgan, Ethel Waters, and Fanny Brice.
Visual displays are particularly important for those of us who appreciate art and historical artifacts. The most obvious examples are the many museums that populate communities throughout the world. One of us recently visited an extraordinary collection of artifacts from the history of slavery in the United States. Located in New Orleans, this museum displays the slave-market manifests and shipping records for the African men, women and children who were dispatched to New Orleans from ports on the Atlantic seaboard.The generativity of museums comes in two forms. First, there are those men and women who donated their paintings, recordings, and artifacts. While some museums are filled with objects that were confiscated rather than donated (notably the great Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg), generosity and generativity are abundantly evident in most of these guardian institutions. The Isabel Stuart Gardner Museum in Boston exemplifies this spirit of display. Gardner and her husband spent considerable time in Europe and purchased many works of art. Gardner built a museum to display and preserve this art. She also exhibited a bit of stagnation (or at least stubbornness) to compliment her spirit of display by insisting that there be no changes in the museum and its collection after her death.
One of us recently visited a museum in Dallas, Texas, that featured Spanish paintings. The donor had visited Spain in conjunction with his own prosperous business and fell in love with under-appreciated artwork of Spanish artists. He wanted these paintings to become better known, so he purchased and donated them to the art museum located at Southern Methodist University. What is the nature of his Generativity Three enactments? Like Isabel Gardner, he cared deeply about these works of art and wanted to preserve and display them so others could appreciate the innovative spirit and craftsmanship of these objects. It is when such objects are purchased for public display and preservation that Generativity Three clearly is enacted.
The second form of display-oriented generativity is to be found among those who serve as volunteer docents, museum administrators, and financial sponsors to keep these institutions in business. Some generative volunteers and often low-paid administrators decide to donate their time because they have neither the capital to make a major financial contribution nor the valuable objects to offer the museum. There is also the motivation of social networking found in the desire of generative people to gather together for a reunion or celebration; when working with a museum, they have the opportunity to affiliate with other men and women who have the same interests, passions, and dedications. There are “lifestyle enclaves” that members of our society create to live in a community that is founded on shared values (Bellah, et al. 1985). For many museum volunteers and administrators, this is their enclave.There is a third motivator for displaying that we have not previously acknowledged; it is secondary to generativity but might be of great importance in drawing people to both preservation and display. The motive is the sheer joy of being around objects of beauty or historical significance. This might, for example, be a motivator for people who seek to preserve a wilderness area because they can savor time in these majestic settings. We know that the basis for some of the criticism made about those who advocate for natural preservation is that they are primarily interested in setting aside these areas for their own enjoyment; other people don’t have the money or time to engage in a trek through the Patagonian paradise or journey into an African jungle to observe guerillas in their natural habitat. While such criticism might be justified, we believe that pure Generativity Three is at play in efforts to preserve and display.
We are reminded of an initiative in Denver, Colorado, during the 1980s when museums, the symphony orchestra, and educational institutions focused for an extended period of time on displaying the art work, performing the music, and offering public lectures about the history and cultural context of a single societal moment. This blending of various media is typically initiated when a city or nation is celebrating its centennial or bi-centennial year. These collaborative ventures often involve not only multiple media, but also the interweaving of several different generativity three acts (parades, consecrations, gatherings of people, an abundance of storytelling). At these moments in time, one might even conceive of an entire community being caught up in acts of Generativity Three. This is clearly something more than self-indulgence.
We conclude this section by turning to the smaller, but often just as important, displaying that occurs in our homes. We establish home “alters” where those things we most value are displayed. Many years ago, Ruesch and Keyes (1969) wrote about such alters and noted that they are typically vertical in design with multiple shelves and display such things as pictures, favorite books, art objects, and memorability from trips taken many years ago. In this way, we see the clear connection between display-based generativity three and the values-oriented generativity three to which we turn shortly. That about which we care deeply is often that which we want other people to witness and admire. This is a form of generativity that is oriented to openness and sharing.
By contrast, we see the non-generative actions taken by some wealthy people who purchase a major work of art and then refuse to exhibit it in public; the painting or sculpture might be preserved, but it remains of “lesser value” because it can never be fully appreciated by the community. Preservation without display is a form of stagnation. We can return to our example of the Gardner Museum in Boston. A famous art theft occurred several decades ago when more than a dozen major works of art were stolen from the museum. None of these art treasurers have ever been recovers. They are probably all now being held and viewed in secret by wealthy, private collectors—exemplifying stagnation as well as criminality.
Honoring
We are guardians in yet another way. We guard the memory of a specific person, group of people, or event by setting aside a day or product in recognition of the contribution that has been made. We have the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving, and the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Other countries similarly honor their fallen warriors or leaders with holidays, often associated with the engagement of other acts of Generativity Three that we have identified (ceremonies, consecrations, gatherings, and storytelling). Thanks to greeting card companies, we are also frequently in the business of honoring people we love—most notably our mothers and fathers.
At a more personal level, we honor people in our lives when we celebrate their birthday, the day of their naming, their lifetime achievements, or their retirement. One of our four Featured Players, Dan, provided an award each year to a professor who had been particularly successful in working with students: “An example of Guardianship was the Professor of the Year Award that I annually presented when I was president of a large university. This annual award was presented to university professor who most exemplified the legacy and values of teaching excellence.” As Dan notes, this award is intended to honor an individual faculty member and to reinforce a legacy and set of values about teaching excellence. As in the case of all forms of Generativity Three, the ultimate goal is to preserve and guard that about which we truly care.
It is not just great teaching that is being honored by generative educational leaders like Dan. Other members of higher educational institutions often honor colleagues by preparing something called a Festschrift—a book that gives tribute to a respected person is presented during his or her lifetime. Typically, scholars or researchers who were mentored by the respected colleague collaborate on writing essays that are in some way aligned with the ideas and work of their respected colleague. There is hardly any other honor bestowed on an intellectual leader that is treasured as much as a festschrift.
We find an even grander honoring ceremony operating in Major League Baseball. One game each year is set aside to honor Jackie Robinson, the first African American to participate in major league baseball and often acknowledged as a brave door-opener for integration in many other sectors of American life. All major baseball players on this day wear Jackie Robinson’s number (42). Speeches are often delivered before or during the game, reminding us what Jackie Robinson meant for American society (blending the Generativity Three roles of honoring and storytelling).
Moments of honoring that are unexpected may have an even greater impact than those anticipated. We are reminded of This is Your Life, a radio (and later TV) program during which the host (Ralph Edwards) surprised a specific person with an entire program devoted to their life history and accomplishments; important people in their life came on stage to share stories about the honored person’s life. Queen for a Day was another surprise honoring program from the earlier days of radio and television. These were often very emotional and inspiring programs. They taught us about not just this individual’s life, but also how one might live an honorable and generative life.
Through these unanticipated events, we bestow honor upon someone we greatly admire and respect, often expecting nothing in return. A lovely example is to be found in Jerry Herman’s hit Broadway play Hello Dolly (an adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Matchmaker). The often-conniving heroine, Dolly Levy, is treated to a grand honor celebration when appearing at a restaurant where she had formerly been a frequent patron with her now dead husband. It is understandable why Herman and Wilder have been honored for their contributions to Broadway, since both successfully produced wonderful plays and musicals that poignantly illuminate the American character. But why the exuberant honoring of Dolly Levi? Was she a really big tipper or did she flirt with all of the waiters? Was this just a publicity stunt to draw other people to the restaurant (“my goodness, if Dolly Levi gets all of this attention, then maybe I should come here more often. She is certainly getting great service with singing and dancing added at no cost!!!”).
The key to honoring Dolly Levi, and the key to most honoring and perhaps most Generativity Three acts, is the great joy that comes from doing the honoring. It is not just Dolly Levi who benefits from the generative actions. When we honor other people, we are also at least indirectly honoring ourselves. We are showing the honored person and often many other people that we are deeply caring people. We have baked a birthday cake that is greeted with great enthusiasm by everyone at the party. We write a poem or compose a song that praises our friend or colleague. It feels good to be creative or silly on behalf of someone else. We are offering something that is tangible and appreciated.
Conclusions
As we noted in the previous essay, Generativity Three is often about “paying it forward.” Now is a good time to say more about this motivator. “Paying it forward” exemplifies what is often referred to by behavioral scientists as social exchange. While a market exchange involves some form of financial transaction or bartering of service, a social exchange involves the anticipation of reciprocity. We are invited to our sister’s home for our brother-in-law’s birthday. An elaborate dinner will be prepared by our sister, and we can anticipate a special evening filled with sincere words and funny stories. We bring a gift and a couple of bottles of wine to the party. These offerings are expected. They are based on deeply embedded social norms. We could instead bring nothing, since there is no formal contract indicating what we should bring and how much our offerings should cost. Unfortunately, if we brought nothing, our sister and brother-in-law would be offended. They might not say anything, but we should expect a frosty reception at the next family gathering.
Or we could be practical and give our sister cash that is equivalent to the cost of a gift and wine. That would make our participation in this honorific event a market exchange rather than a social exchange. This act would probably be even more offensive than if we brought nothing. We have violated the social exchange norm. Our sister would probably wonder what she has done wrong to deserve such an inappropriate and “ugly” offer of cash. “Does my brother think we are broke and need a hand-out?” “Can’t he even spend the time to find one lousy gift and a good bottle of wine to go with the meal? After all, I spent all this time cooking the meal that he and his wife are about to eat!”
The critical element of “paying forward” is when we offer Generativity Three by honoring another person in order to establish or preserve a social bond. We expect in the future to be similarly honored. At the very least, we feel good about doing what is appropriate about a social exchange. Generativity of all kinds is founded in social exchange. We pay babysitters and day care centers to take care of our children; this is market exchange. We ask grandparents to take care of our children while we are going out for the evening; they receive no money, just a hug, kiss, and word of gratitude. This is Generativity One social exchange. Virtually all forms of Generativity One, Two and Three are founded on social rather than market exchange. And some of these generative acts are also founded on a spiritual foundation. We turn in the next essay to one of these spiritual acts: consecration.
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References
Anderson, Walter Truett (1995) The Truth about the Truth. New York: Tarcher.
Bellah, Robert and others (1985) Habits of the Heart. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Huizinga, Johan (1968) Homo Ludens. Boston: Beacon Press.
Ruesch, Jurgen and Weldon Kees (1969) Nonverbal Communication. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Sarason, Seymour (1972) The Creation of Settings and the Future Societies. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.