Thinking Like a Child, Clanging Like a Cymbal

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.”–I Corinthians 12:11

Or at least that’s the way it’s supposed to work.

In my series “Blogging–The Wonder Years” which will resume later this week, it’s been pretty apparent from my 7th grade journal that my thought processes have undergone a little evolution since the 1970s. I fancy myself a more grown-up thinker these days. But the truth is I’m still a work-in-progress, and if God grants more time, I’ll probably look back in twenty years and have a good laugh at some of my early 21st century pontifications and ponderings.

gong.gifI’m figuring that will be the case because already I chuckle (and cringe) at some of the things I said and did twenty years ago. As I recall, I was a pretty smart guy and considered myself God’s gift to the discussion at hand. I think I may have even fancied myself a prophet. My poor friends and family–I’m still amazed they survived. I’ve come to believe that those who consciously desire and relish the role of prophet and then proceed to spray jeremiads like pellets from a sawed-off shotgun are perhaps the most noisome and nettlesome creatures on the face of the earth.

I was reminded of all this recently when I read the commencement address that Senator John McCain delivered this past week at both Columbia University and The New School in New York City. Neither of these schools are bastions of conservatism, and his appearance as a commencement speaker was met with considerable opposition and not a few ruffled feathers in both places.

Senator McCain regaled the new graduates with some wise and winsome remarks on the nature of public discourse in the early 21st century. Here is the speech in its entirety, but this particular section caught my eye:

“When I was a young man, I was quite infatuated with self-expression, and rightly so because, if memory conveniently serves, I was so much more eloquent, well-informed, and wiser than anyone else I knew. It seemed I understood the world and the purpose of life so much more profoundly than most people. I believed that to be especially true with many of my elders, people whose only accomplishment, as far as I could tell, was that they had been born before me, and, consequently, had suffered some number of years deprived of my insights. I had opinions on everything, and I was always right. I loved to argue, and I could become understandably belligerent with people who lacked the grace and intelligence to agree with me. With my superior qualities so obvious, it was an intolerable hardship to have to suffer fools gladly. So I rarely did. All their resistance to my brilliantly conceived and cogently argued views proved was that they possessed an inferior intellect and a weaker character than God had blessed me with, and I felt it was my clear duty to so inform them. It’s a pity that there wasn’t a blogosphere then. I would have felt very much at home in the medium…It’s funny, now, how less self-assured I feel late in life than I did when I lived in perpetual springtime.”

Senator McCain is right, young men think they know everything and have all the answers. Furthermore the modern development of the blogosphere has given “angry young men” and self-proclaimed prophets, for better or for worse, a much broader reach and a wider audience. All this is available to them before they have had enough life experience to temper their cocksure proclamations and well ahead of the time when they will finally come to realize how little they actually know.

For me that came in my mid to late thirties after I had weathered a few of the circumstances of everyday living, such as career, child-rearing, keeping my marriage together and watching helplessly as friends divorced and family died much too soon. Such experiences rounded off many of my sharp edges and left me at a loss for pat answers and a little worse for wear. The upside is they also taught me the valuable lesson of pausing and taking a deep breath prior to engaging my mouth (or keyboard). I’m still learning, to this day, how little I actually know.

The blogosphere lends a more enduring effect to the rant du jour as well, giving it an extended life it was not meant to have. Whereas my friends and family have long since forgotten most of the ill-spoken things I said twenty years ago, blogs leave a well-marked digital trail which is relatively easy to follow. If personal blogs occasionally cause a problem for those in the work force, how much more so for today’s students who have yet to hold a real job and who are still breathing the rarified air within the protective bubble of the academy. A future employer who searches the blog of a job candidate will gain more insight into the mind of that applicant than could ever be provided by a million Myers-Briggs personality inventories. The chances of a future employer digging up applicant “dirt” increases with each day and with each keystroke.

So where am I going with all this? It’s just that in my strolls through the blogosphere, I routinely encounter young students, especially seminarians, who are quite taken with their own thoughts and impressed by how many gather round to read them. My advice, tainted as it is coming from a forty-something fogey, would be this: get a real job, get a life and check back with me in about 15 years. By then maybe what you have to say will be seasoned with the salt of experience and will sound much more like love than the rants of a child in arrested development and the clanging of a noisy cymbal.

11 Comments
  1. scott

    I could not imagine if I had blogged when I was in my early 20’s. The arrogance, immaturity, and naivete would be overwhelming.
    I have always been somewhat transparent and have received criticism of late for it.
    But I would rather be transparent in my searching and grappling to understand than staunch in my “right”-ness.
    I’ve tried to be a part of those blog discussions that you refer to. I fall fairly close in agreement with some of what is said, but the rhetoric and hyperbole is just exhausting to me.

  2. JRB

    I appreciate the point, Mike. As I fall squarely between you and the early-20 bloggers, I wonder how you view what I write versus what, say, GKB writes. It’s kinda like driving; if you’re comfortable at 70 mph, anybody slower is a codger but anybody faster is reckless. I also wonder if this generational tension is not always part of the dynamic of progress (or regress), at least of movement in society and the Church.

  3. Mike the Eyeguy

    Scott–

    Yes, it is exhausting and as far I can tell, pretty much a waste of time. I’m drawn to it in the same way that one might rubberneck at a multi-fatality wreck. Phariseeism can come in all shapes and sizes, cloaked in a veil of “right”-ness or in the guise of progressivism.

    I think the discussion we all had over at Jason’s a couple of weeks ago regarding the Georgia Tech situation was fun and could serve as a model for the way a blog discussion should go. Everybody brought something good to the table, there was some thrust and parry along with some good-natured humor and at the end, mutual respect. Maybe we should teach a class or something.

    Say, what do you think of McCain anyway? If he were to get the nomination would that be enough to lure you back into the GOP fold?

    The more I see and hear him, the more I like him. I think he could win if he could get by Frist and Romney first. In fact, he might win a general election easier than he could get the nomination.

    I promised Nancy I would vote for Romney if I get the Lands End tie, but I’m looking around and I don’t see it yet. Maybe if she would throw in the book that would seal the deal. I might be even be willing to revisit that whole Book of Mormon thing again if I could just get that tie.

  4. Mike the Eyeguy

    JRB–

    Hey, thanks for weighing in, and I appreciate your appreciation.

    I think you’re the kind of blogger who generally stays between the lines and under the speed limit, but probably puts the pedal to the medal when the cops aren’t looking.

    As opposed to GKB (who I’m sure is a decent chap whom I would like if I met on the street or in church) who goes off road, onto sidewalks and more often than not, into ditches. 🙂

    Seriously, you’ve always struck me as one who attempts to see all sides and who seasons their words with grace and humility. If we all did that, the blogosphere would be a more congenial hang out.

    I may be forty-something, but I’m no Archie Bunker. In fact, I can appreciate the thoughts of many a Gen-X and Y, so long as there’s some humility to go along with it. Again, I think this is a developmental thing that comes in time. A job outside the academy where one has to answer to real bosses and real customers/clients/patients/parishoners helps the process along.

    I’m the kind of blogger who likes to drive a little black Audi A4 (not an A6 or an A8, God forbid) which he purchased for under $30K in 2002 (which, according to GKB’s theology, means I’m on heaven’s highway, unlike the poor souls who paid $30,001 or above for their wheels).

    I like to roll back the sunroof, fire up the Bose, and cruise the mountains around Huntsville with Eyegal at my side. Sometimes on those 75 degree days with the sun shining, Eyegal looking mighty fetching and The Eagles’ “Peaceful Easy Feeling” pumping through the speakers, I feel as if I’m having a religious experience, yea, even a sacramental moment.

    Life is good.

  5. scott

    I do think there is a great role that the younger bloggers play. And my interactions with GKB has led me to the conclusion that he is a really good guy. He’s even helped me out with my blog.
    Sure, there is always a need for greater humility but I see that in a lot of the more “extreme” blogs out there as well. The discussions usually help me somewhat in wrestling with my own issues. But, you are right, I do miss those days of certainty.
    That discussion on Jason’s blog was a good one, it was small, limited to a few people and somewhat contained. When I do comment on some of the other blogs I typically feel ignored. I’m not good in mass discussion settings. I lose interest quickly.
    I’ve said in the past that I would support McCain. I like him but I don’t think he would ever get nominated. The dirty tricks the ultras in the GOP pulled against him in South Carolina in 2000 attest to that.
    In the meantime, I’m stumping for the Obama-Feingold ticket. There, that should get Nancy riled. 😀

  6. Mike the Eyeguy

    Scott–

    Obama-Feingold, eh? You’re just mad that you didn’t win the book.

    I still think you, Jason and I should teach a blogging class. Pepperdine, are you listening? Probably not.

    I think blogs are like crowded pubs. Everybody shouts to be heard, but nobody really listens. As the night wears on and the alcohol flows freely, things degenerate quickly.

    You’ll never be ignored here, Scott. I value and cherish each one of my dozen or so loyal readers. I can’t afford to ignore anyone.

  7. JRB

    Aye, humility. There’s the rub. Even so, I’m reminded that Jesus took the world by storm with a bunch of 20-something angry young men. They were bold, brash and wholly misunderstood everything He had to say, for while. Then they understood, grew wise and turned the world upside down.

    Of course, I have the moral authority to write this because I drive a VW Jetta VR6, pretty much just like your A4 under the skin, except tougher and faster and more righteous and wholly, especially as we sweep across the countryside, jamming to Dave Matthews.

  8. JRB

    I can’t believe my typos above. It was early, and I was not yet fully coffeefied.

    I did mean that I’m more “righteous and holy” than you, not “wholly.” How could I be more wholly you? That doesn’t make sense.

  9. Mike the Eyeguy

    The apostles were 20-something, angry young men? I always pictured them as around 5’9″ with receding hairlines, crow’s feet and the slightest hint of middle-age paunch.

    The Jetta is lighter than the A4 and with that V6 you would likely beat me from 0-60. But the question is, could you handle the curves on Monte Sano?

    I have Quattro, which means the next time there’s a blizzard in North Alabama (i.e., 2 inches) I’m ready. In the meantime, I accelerate through curves while Jetta drivers tap their brakes.

    You should work where I do. We have caffeine IVs for the early morning and a Valium lick for late afternoon.

  10. GKB

    Sorry I’m a bit late to the discussion, but I just stumbled across it this morning.

    Initially, I was a little peeved at what I perceived to be “talking behind my back.” But, then I decided it was mostly true, and got over it.

    My take on it all: to get to Dallas from Abilene you have to pass through Clyde and Baird and Eastland and Weatherford. Just because you’re currently in Clyde doesn’t mean you’re any less on the road to Dallas than the guy in Weatherford. (GoogleMaps will help any not acquainted with West Texas geography).

  11. Mike the Eyeguy

    As I live and breath, I’ve been fulfilled as a blogger–GKB has left me a comment!

    Greg, I suspect that if the road from Huntsville to Abilene could ever be shortened, that you and I would have a great time over a cup of coffee, or maybe even an “adult beverage” if it wouldn’t get you in too much trouble with the folks at ACU.

    Have a blessed holiday weekend, and, peace of Christ to you.

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