{"id":1517,"date":"2013-03-21T11:42:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-21T11:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/what-if-the-kids-dont-want-our-church.html"},"modified":"2013-03-21T11:42:00","modified_gmt":"2013-03-21T11:42:00","slug":"what-if-the-kids-dont-want-our-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/what-if-the-kids-dont-want-our-church.html","title":{"rendered":"What If the Kids Don’t Want Our Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

I had a conversation with a man not long ago who has the unenviable task of sorting through his mother\u2019s considerable estate, deciding what to keep, what to sell and what to throw away. While sorting, in an act of extraordinary self-awareness, he stopped to consider just what his three adult daughters might like to keep when they find themselves going through\u00a0his<\/em>\u00a0stuff after he\u2019s gone.<\/span><\/div>\n
During this moment of reflection, my friend had an epiphany: What if his kids don\u2019t want all the stuff he\u2019s worked so hard to acquire?<\/span><\/div>\n
He was struck by the fact that his adult daughters have no real attachment to all the antiques and precious heirlooms his family has spent so much time accumulating. He went on to observe that his daughters and their partners tend to value instead things like mobility and flexibility. They\u2019ve shown no desire to become curators of a bunch of stuff \u2014 even special stuff, really\u00a0good<\/em>\u00a0stuff.<\/span><\/div>\n
For one thing, they don\u2019t have the room for it. They live in apartments and small houses. They don\u2019t have any space to house an armoire, no place to stash a dining room table for 12. When your biggest piece of furniture is a flat screen TV, and your idea of rearranging the living room is pushing a stack of magazines to the other side of the Ikea coffee table, the prospect of being responsible for a 12 place-setting china inheritance feels like a commitment on par with marriage, or deciding to take in a stray dachshund.<\/span><\/div>\n
For another thing, their lives are centered on adventure and experience. They love the outdoors, love to travel. They\u2019re used to packing light. They tend to have a different relationship to \u201cstuff.\u201d Oh, they like nice stuff, to be sure. It\u2019s just that they view stuff instrumentally. Stuff is a tool for the accomplishment of purposes. And to the extent that a nice tool helps accomplish its purpose more efficiently than a lousy one, they value it. The question put to a thing is not whether its value is intrinsic or even sentimental, but whether it\u2019s useful. To their way of thinking, you use stuff to help you do things you want to do, not to make you feel good about things you\u2019ve\u00a0already<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0done.<\/span><\/div>\n
Read the rest here<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a conversation with a man not long ago who has the unenviable task of sorting through his mother\u2019s considerable estate, deciding what to keep, what to sell and what to throw away. While sorting, in an act of extraordinary self-awareness, he stopped to consider just what his three adult daughters might like to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat If the Kids Don't Want Our Church?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I had a conversation with a man not long ago who has the unenviable task of sorting through his mother's considerable estate, deciding what to keep, what\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/what-if-the-kids-dont-want-our-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What If the Kids Don't Want Our Church?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I had a conversation with a man not long ago who has the unenviable task of sorting through his mother's considerable estate, deciding what to keep, what\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2013\/03\/what-if-the-kids-dont-want-our-church.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-03-21T11:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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