If you took anatomy in college, chances are you used the classic textbook Gray’s Anatomy. If you’ve spent time with high school students in the past year or so, chance are you’ve had a conversation about the popular TV show, Grey’s Anatomy.
Consider the following imaginary scenario. Lindsay, a Young Life leader, meets Devin, a high school senior, for breakfast before school. Devin is in the Campaigner group that Lindsay leads. A couple of summers ago, Lindsay and was with Devin at a Young Life summer camp when she started a relationship with Christ. On this morning, as the two catch up and check in about life, Lindsay asks Devin, “Did you watch Grey’s last night?”
“Oh my gosh, yes. I love that show. I want to be Meredith Grey [the show’s protagonist].”
“Seriously?” Lindsay replies, “Her life seems so complicated.”
"Meredith Grey is sooo lucky,” Devin says. “Even though her life is complicated, she has two guys going after her. I love her life. It's just way more exciting than mine. I totally want to be her."
Lindsay and Devin talk about a lot of things that morning, and then it’s time for Devin to get to school. As Devin parts ways with Lindsay in the parking lot of the restaurant, she says, “Just so you know, I’ve already got John 1:1-14 memorized for Campaigners tonight. See you then!” Lindsay leaves encouraged, but also just a little perplexed at what seems like a paradox. What really is so attractive about Meredith Grey’s life, she wonders?
The “What” and “Why”
Anatomy is the science that deals with the structure of the human body. It teaches you “what is what.” In an anatomy class, you’d probably get pretty good at telling the difference between the left and right femur, just by looking at them. But even with a classic textbook like Gray’s Anatomy, you’re only getting part of the story, just like observing that high school girls are drawn to flawed characters such as Meredith Grey. You need the physiology behind the anatomy. Physiology is the science of the function of the body. It explains why each part of the body functions the way it does. When observing how our adolescent friends interact with popular culture, it’s one thing to see what’s going on (the anatomy), but it’s another thing to figure out why it’s going on (the physiology). We need to understand the physiology — the “why behind the what” — to help us make sense of it all.
The popularity of Grey’s Anatomy among adolescents poses a “what” for us. Understanding something of the adolescent development process gives us a glimpse into the “why.” Adolescence marks the beginning of the process of individuation, or what Princeton Philosopher of Christian Education James Loder calls, “Becoming one’s own person.” However, in Western society the task of becoming one’s own person, for an adolescent, takes place largely with very little support. Adolescents today typically have few adults in their lives who take seriously the responsibility of guiding them into adulthood. As Fuller Seminary Professor of Youth, Family and Culture Chap Clark says, young people are, in essence, abandoned and thus journey solo across the “tightrope” that has become adolescence.
Longings Unveiled
If one of our Campaigner kids says they “totally want to be” Meredith Grey, we might think in terms of the conflicting values or morals she represents and be concerned. Isn’t this a negative influence? Wouldn’t we hope they’d pick a better role model? Yes, but only if we stop at the anatomy of things — the what. To an adolescent, who sees vulnerability, insecurity, self doubt, mild depression and inner strife portrayed in a flawed character who longs to be needed, she finds someone a few years ahead in the journey who seems to know exactly how she feels right now! This very well could be why an adolescent can look past the moral failures of Meredith Grey and find her so compelling. If we were inside Devin’s head we might find her saying, “OK sure, Meredith’s got some issues I don’t want, but she really knows what my life is like.”
This is a bit of the physiology of things behind the anatomy. If we are careful, curious and reflective — in other words, in the habit of looking for the physiology of things behind the anatomy — we can see past the what and discover the deeper, compelling longings of the why. Understanding physiology takes us beyond the Gray’s Anatomy textbook. Understanding the physiology of the adolescent world takes us beyond Grey’s Anatomy. It can also take us into the otherwise hidden struggles and doubts our adolescent friends face in their journey across the tightrope.