The old man and the youth

It can get complicated between the óld man' and the youth, Sometimes the óld man' doesn't recognize that we might need some of the adventurous free spirit of the youth, and some of their wandering, idealism and creativity, and it is the youth who carries the new spirit of the times.

But then again. sometimes the youth can get swept away by a kind of revolutionary zeal. And can hardly recognize any positive side to the óld man'. They can only see the devouring Father, and can be almost ahistorical and don't really trust anyone over 28 and don't always recognize the 'wise old man'(or woman) as 'mentor' who can temper some of the recklessness of adolescence or of youth. Or the 'Elder' who passes down some of the first stories and myths from one generation to the next.

This led to James Hillman’s idea of the need to find some rapprochement between the senex(old man) and the puer(youth). ‘The soul is not young or old, or it is both’ he said. It is a combination of both we might need within ourselves. A kind of ‘senex et puer’(the youth might need some of the old man and the old man might need some of the youth). The aim is not to be too dominated by the senex(old man) or too dominated by the puer(youth) but to have room for both. We might need some of the consolidation and grounding of the ‘old man’ along with some of the adventurous spirit of the youth.