Every generation, when its children reach their teens, says to them "You don't have it as bad as we had it!" While frequently true, this statement does not always take into account other factors that would moderate the judgment.

In exploring the issue of degrees of difficulty, I will compare my grandparents with my grandchildren.

Differences

My grandparents' generation endured physical hardship, putting up with conditions my grandchildren could hardly imagine. They had fewer financial resources, and needed to improvise. The science of medicine was relatively undeveloped, and there were few doctors. My grandparents, in their younger years, were without the technological achievements my grandchildren take for granted. Stoves were primitive, and there were no washing machines, or refrigerators, let alone dishwashers, radios, televisions, and computers. My grandparents endured two world wars, and a financial depression that lasted over a decade. They did not have the opportunity to travel, which is regarded by many today as a right. My grandchildren were born into a world that is far more affluent, better resourced, and that offers them a greater number of options than those available to my grandparents' generation [57]

The Downside

However, in spite of these advantages, there is a downside to the world into which my grandchildren have been born.

This world boasts few certainties, and is neither stable nor predictable. Though ideas and attitudes that were taken for granted in my grandparents' generation have been questioned, if not dismissed, and with good reason, the absence of certainties and accepted protocols has meant that my grandchildren are faced with forging their own certainties and negotiating their own roles, a difficult, if not impossible task.

The world into which they have been were born is far more affluent than that with which my grandparents were familiar. This increasing affluence, however, has not increased happiness. It has fostered discontent, not only among those who are at the bottom of the ladder, but even among those who benefit from the added wealth.

While my generation enjoyed full employment, young people today face diminishing job opportunities, particularly for those who do not possess special skills, who lack initiative, or who do not have the right connections. Whereas my parents' generation could look forward to remaining in one job for life, young people today need to be multi-skilled to survive in a changing labour market. Young people are also the victims of a global economy that has become increasingly profit-driven. Individuals are sacrificed on the altar of productivity.

Children today are conditioned by the media to a degree that previous generations were not. My grandparents, when they were young, could read the papers, but they had no radio or television. They made their own fun, and were free to [58] develop their individuality. Today's young people have been homogenized by education, the media, a video culture, and computer games. The Internet, in spite of the diversity of interests to which it has given us access, contributes to the same process. The pervasive influence of these developments seduces them into allowing others to do their thinking for them at a time in their lives when they are overly sensitive to peer pressure. It also encourages them to aspire to unsustainable levels of affluence, and to accept an artificial set of values, some explicit and some subliminal, that are marketed by commercial and ideological interests.

The young today are exposed to a range of fearful scenarios. They are aware that we are despoiling the planet, and that anything short of drastic action will result in disaster, even extinction. They are also aware that drastic action could lead to economic and social chaos. Though young people benefit from a pharmacological arsenal that my grandparents could not have dreamed about, they are also aware that the use of antibiotics, and other drugs, has led to the emergence of resistant strains of the diseases we once thought we had under control. Knowledge of the distress and chaos generated by cross-species infections, like AIDS, and the human variant of mad-cow disease, together with the possibility of our being bombarded by comets, meteors or space debris, add to their anxiety.

Young people are faced with sophisticated moral issues as a consequence of our increasing ability to control our lives and our environment. They are aware that scientific developments have out-distanced our ability to assess their moral significance or to put in place legal safeguards.

The young today are exposed to political chaos and carnage served up to them, everyday, by news and current affairs programmes. They are aware, through exposure to this [59] litany of conflict and savagery, of a resurgent tribalism. They know that the planet is overpopulated. They are vaguely aware that future conflicts will be concerned with access to food and water. They are also subject to the cynicism endemic in our post-modern world, and to the crisis in meaning that accompanies it.

To say that my grandchildren's generation are better situated than my generation, my parents generation or my grandparents generation, is to say both too much and too little.

Options

In spite of the difficulties encountered by young people today, they are faced with a greater number of options than any previous generation--an overwhelming number of options. Unfortunately, in choosing between this plethora of opportunities, most will select easy options.

Why

Why do so many choose the easy options?

One of the reasons is that parents of the present generation of young people have had the money to provide their children with opportunities, experiences, and material possessions that the children have taken for granted. Parents have fostered a cargo cult mentality. Some parents have not been able to afford what they have given their children, but have felt pressured to do so, going into debt to avoid being criticized by their children for disadvantaging them relative to other children. Their children are socially conditioned to expect to be given access to what they see on the media. This process fosters acquisitiveness. Youngsters are told that they can enhance their appearance, and therefore their [60] popularity, through purchasing particular products. Unfortunately, it is often through credit cards, offered to youngsters, who are without the means to service their debts, that these goals are attained, at least in the short term, that is, before items are repossessed or further credit denied.

It is little wonder that some young develop a preference for easy options, and an aversion to difficult ones.

Consequences

It is important to consider the consequences of selecting the easy option.

It has to be admitted that there is an initial satisfaction. Goals can be achieved through an economy of effort. Furthermore, immediate reward increases the youngster's susceptibility to the next advertising campaign.

There are a number of negative consequences that flow from choosing the easy option. Our bodies and personalities can become flabby and our abilities atrophy. Choosing the easy option too many times means that we may never acquire skills that require effort and perseverance. It also means that we fail to prepare ourselves for crises.

Difficult options

If we choose the difficult options, options that will test us, we face a different range of consequences.

Working on difficult options will tone up our bodies, minds, and abilities. We will be stimulated by tackling tasks that are difficult. Difficulties foster creativity. If you want to achieve a particular result, and you don't have the money to purchase equipment that others use, you need to improvise [61] to creatively design a substitute that will be less costly. Meeting this challenge will give you great satisfaction.

Because we can so easily purchase products that meet our needs, fewer and fewer people, even professionals, are able to improvise. I have been fortunate, over the years, to have had my cars serviced by mechanics, who, rather than purchasing expensive items, would make them up for me out of scrap materials. The more we are able to improvise in this way, whatever it is we are making or organising, the greater will be our confidence in our creativity. This will strengthen our belief in our general competency. It will also develop character.

In tackling difficult tasks, we need to be careful that we do not overstrain ourselves. We also need to recognise that choosing the difficult option can become a fetish, a pathological form of asceticism. It can be masochistic. We would be foolish to choose difficult tasks merely because they are difficult. The difficult option is not always the best, or wisest option.

Principles

It is important to be aware of our capacity, and its limits. It is foolish to persevere with projects for which we do not have the ability. We need to realise that we can only do a certain number of things at once. Sometimes, the development of particular abilities, associated with one task, unfits us for others. We become muscle-bound.

We need to make a judgment on the appropriateness of taking on certain responsibilities. There are times when we are not ready, not sufficiently prepared, for carrying through certain goals. [62]

It's important to maintain our health. This does not mean that we should refrain from pushing limits, though we should limit the extent to which we push limits, so that we do not reduce our efficiency, or permanently damage our health.

In tackling difficult tasks, particularly if they don't appear to be working out, we can become driven. The more frustrated we are, the more driven we become. When we find ourselves at the mercy of our drivenness, it is important to examine its source. It is all too easy for us to become locked into our drivenness, even though we are aware that the more driven we are the less efficient we are.

There are times when we need to recognise that we have reached the limits of our ability, and that what we are contributing needs to be supplemented by the work of specialists.

It is important for us to proceed by degrees. It is helpful to celebrate small achievements. Because we have so many projects that we want to finish, the tendency is to finish the task in hand as soon as possible so that we can get on with others. But most tasks cannot be achieved at a single sitting.

Grace

When we tackle difficult tasks, whether it is with our hands, our minds or our spirits, we will find a grace that will stimulate and inform our efforts, a grace of which we will be most conscious when we find ourselves confronting seemingly insurmountable hurdles. In facing these hurdles, it is important that we relax, give ourselves space, and be open to serendipitous intuitions. Our best work will be done when we can maintain the tension between effort and relaxation, and between skill and grace. [63]

[ROI 57-63]