Growth

"When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things." --1 Corinthians 13:11

To me, this Bible verse implies that childish things are undesirable when compared to adult things. However, when I reflect on this passage and think about how I have changed from when I was young, there are some changes that I do not think are desirable. Take the picture above, for example. This is a picture of nine dolphins swimming in a bottle, but I bet you couldn't see them when you first looked at the picture. You must focus on the darker parts of the image. I lost my innocence at some point in my "maturing" and will never get it back. This saddens me to an extent, but I know that it was an inevitable part of getting older and experiencing more things, and I don't think that I would trade my innocence for the knowledge and life-lessons that I have gained from these new experiences. Oh, the URL where I found the picture didn't show up very well and I can't take credit for the illusion, so here's the site.

While I think that innocence is the main casualty in my maturing process, I think that a lot of people lose their sense of humor when they age. I don't think that I could make it through life without a sense of humor but it seems to me that too many people find that the best way to grow up involves jamming something uncomfortable into their anuses and leaving it there for the rest of their lives, which I am sure removes the ability to take anything lightly. Unfortunately, when they lose their sense of humor they replace it with a sense of entitlement regardless of whether it is deserved. I witnessed a simple example of this when I was walking to class today. There was a guy who had opened a door to a building on campus and, after entering the building, he held the door open for a girl who was behind him. I was not paying enough attention to notice if she had acknowledged his incredibly selfless act, but apparently she didn't. As a result, the guy stopped her and vehemently said "you're welcome." I was taken aback and confronted him about his attitude, informing him that he was making a huge deal out of an insignificant event. The next period of classes was about to start so he didn't argue, but I could see that he wasn't happy with what I said. In any event, I think that this sense of entitlement destines these people to be disappointed, which causes them to feel even more entitled to something else. This is not a healthy way to live and probably causes a good chunk of the lawsuits today.

While I have enjoyed the process of growing up and want to continue maturing, I think that it is important to keep practicing things that were instilled in me as a child, like telling the truth, doing things to be kind and not for compensation, and apologizing for my faults. In this sense, I think that to become a man some childish things cannot be forgotten.