MATURITY

224 – Wednesday, August 12, 2009

As my computer tech, Chuck, sat at the Labradorite granite highbar countertop telling us of his son, who is 18, I rose from the kitchen table to refill his emptying iced tea glass – everything from my waist down creaked, cracked or in some other way disobeyed a direct order in the chain of command from the brain. Chuck’s eyes widened as I asked him if HE would not like to be eighteen again – he did not hesitate a single nano-second (he is a computer guy, you know – that’s how they measure time) when he replied, “Only if I could go back knowing what I know now!” Think about his answer! All the time we spend bemoaning the defection of our physical image and prowess to the enemy camp, we clamp down on the life lessons we have learned with the tenacity and gusto of a hungry hound dog wrestling over a piece of prime rib! That is usually because so dear a price was extracted from us in order to attain the invaluable wisdom through some heinous trial or tribulation, often brought about by our former lack of maturity. We pray that our offspring will listen when we share the pain we suffered in gleaning our insights so they do not have to collect their own personal battle scars, but unfortunately, they usually have to earn the sheepskin from the University of Hard-Knocks for themselves. Given the opportunity, your response would likely follow the same pattern as Chuck’s! We would all love to revisit our youth and the rejuvenation that turning back the clock might offer, but it is not worth the risk of potentially making even worse decisions the next go around without the wisdom we now have. I find it both interesting and amusing, given all the emphasis that our culture places on retaining youthfulness and physical beauty, that the commodity we personally treasure most as we age is our maturity – especially considering it arrived on the coattails of such extraordinary ordeal.

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