An attitude worth fighting against as one gets older is underestimating the young.  Every generation, as it ages, should resist the temptation to think it understands what motivates young people and confront the tendency to simplify and generalize what matters to them.  Looking back today at the 1960s as the counterculture gathered momentum in places such as London and San Francisco, it’s hilarious to see how the middle-aged and elderly of the time missed the zeitgeist, misjudging completely the extraordinary creativity, energy, and commitment of the emerging generation.  The same risk is present right now: the lazy generalization that nothing more than consumerism, celebrity, and computer games motivate the young.

These thoughts were in part provoked by watching my own children react to political developments such as the Trump presidency and Brexit, but they intensified after spending a few days this month in Santiago de Compostela.  This small, beautiful city was crowded, as it often is, with those completing the Camino de Santiago, the ancient pilgrimage (it dates from the 9th century) that ends at the resting place of St. James the Great in the cathedral.  It’s estimated that as many as 300,000 people each year complete the Camino on foot or by bicycle, traveling hundreds of miles from their homes or from one of the traditional starting points in France, Portugal, or Spain.

I’ve known for years about the Camino, but this was my first time visiting Santiago and seeing it for myself.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I was very surprised and impressed by the huge number of young people in their teens and twenties among the peregrinos.  What motivated them?  For some of them it must have been tied to a religious or more widely spiritual impulse.  Perhaps for others it was the opportunity to be part of something ancient, to test their own endurance, or simply strenuous exercise in a beautiful setting.  Whatever it is that explains why so many young people walked or cycled hundreds of miles and to join in this ancient tradition, it was impossible not to impressed by them, by their commitment, energy, and sense of purpose.