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Building the Bridge: Inter-Generational Generativity

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Passing the Torch: Generativity and Values

These modes of generativity are soul-filled in large part because they are founded in deeply held values. We would suggest and both of us have emphasized the critical role played by values in our contemporary, “postmodern” world (Bergquist, 1993; Wright, 2015). Fundamentally, the primary benefit offered by both generativity three and generativity four is the maintenance of what Talcott Parsons (1970) calls the “latent pattern” to be found in any viable society. With boundaries often being shattered through digitalization and globalization, and agility taking the place of stability as a dominant organizational strategy, it is vitally important that there be an anchoring set of values (alongside a clear and compelling mission, sense of purpose, and vision of the future). Without these values, “the center will not hold.”

Multi-generational relationships can serve an important role in the maintenance of these values (latent patterns). We offer the following observation from the SOULink essay that one of prepared (Wright, 2016, p. 2):

In our materialistic culture, another valuable asset lost when multi-generational relationships falter is the incredible richness of traditional values. Some ve said that our current “younger” generation · has no values, except materialism entitlement and self-centeredness. How did that happen? While this is certainly not true of every young adult, it is prevalent today partly because we have not passed them along from generation to generation. In the past, this was a vital role of the grandparent.

To further expand on this observation, reference is made in this essay to a tradition found in the Jewish culture (Wright, 2016, p. 3):

I have long admired the traditionally Jewish practice of something called a “Jewish Will” or an “ethical will.” These documents have their ancient roots in Judaism, but regardless of belief or faith, it is a mindset and a valuable tradition we all need to insure a more values-based future. An -Ethical Will is a document that is designed to allow a person to pass on their ethical and moral values from one generation to the ·next. It has become more and more popular with the general public in the past few decades, but the Jews have- been doing this for millennia. Its origins are apparently in the book of Genesis, when Jacob was dying and blessed his sons.9 It is seen in Moses’ speeches to the people of Israel before he died, and many other occasions in the Old Testament Oewish Tenach). This practice of passing on belief systems and values, dreams and goals, is a Hebrew tradition which today is even used by others for estate planning.

We can point to the recently enacted rituals found in many African American community where traditions—and traditional values in particular—are imparted from the older generation to the younger generation. Generativity Two mentoring is coupled with Generativity Three storytelling and Generativity Four engagement of the new initiates in community projects.

While the Jewish and African American communities begin with an established culture of shared care and collectivism, other communities can emulate the generative, inter-generational processes. We recognize, however, that leaders of these more modern (and even postmodern) communities often must “swim upstream”—having helped to establish (or at least learned to live with) an individualistic, disengaged culture that discourages the kind of bridging presented in the two Wright essays and the current essay.

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