From the New York Times yesterday came an article about how young people are struggling with their lives. The mentor who is guiding the way is being heralded as "the patron saint of striving youth".
"Dr. Jay has emerged as the patron saint of striving youth, a prophetlike figure for a generation of young people buried under mixed messaging. "Imagine you’ve been plunked into the ocean. You can’t spot land. You’re treading water, your arms are spaghetti-limp and all you see is blue. You get the sense that this could be it forever: you against the currents.
"It’s a little dramatic. But it is one of the metaphors that the clinical psychologist Meg Jay has shared to describe being in your 20s in her cult classic book “The Defining Decade” — and it is the metaphor that persistently triggers the most explosive reader response.
"There were 50 million 20-somethings in the United States, about 15 percent of the population, when “The Defining Decade” came out. This cohort is experiencing a stage of life that Dr. Jay describes as a modern phenomenon. For much of history, people didn’t have a full decade between leaving their parents’ homes and starting their own families. They settled down early — moving into their own homes, finding jobs, having children. That brings up the topic secular saints. Wikipedia has an entry on this, but it is short and not very instructive. The New York Times article in 2018 on celebrity worship and asserted that Leonard Cohen was a secular saint. The criteria seemed to be: they have made a significant impact in the entertainment industry, are recently deceased or have advocated for social justice issues.
Leonard Cohen vs striving youth's Dr. Jay? I'll take Leonard Cohen.
| 
