Of course we want our twenty-something kids to shine their light and keep on exploring until they really come home to their sense of self and make their place in this world. That goes to the top of the list, but what about money? What about the economics of selfhood? What about financial crash-landings? What about the fact that many great endeavors take time, and that means resources--including money? Such delicious complexity! Time for us guides to raise our game and embrace that complexity. We'd like to be the best possible guides to our kids in their time of learning and growing and exploring and stabilizing--aka the open road journey.
In his latest work, Mark Butler takes up this matter of burgeoning individuality and infuses it with matters of money and economy. He brings practical ideas and friendly encouragement to bear on the economics of selfhood. That we live in a capital-biased culture makes this all the more imperative. The point is not more money or less money; rather, the point is our kids having a strong sense of self and, within that, knowing how to really handle themselves in this highly intense capital world into which they're coming of age.
Open Road gives its reader stories, insights, a lively typology, and, the ever-important doses of humility and humor that make us know we're not alone in our own journey as guides to our young people. Comparing notes is never wrong, and Butler's book gives us the lens and language with which to do just that.