Sometimes I think things...

I just finished a rather wonderful book, Criss Cross, by Lynne Rae Perkins, and it got me thinking. Its a beautiful coming-of-age story… and I’m wondering if I still have some of that left. I envy innocence. Perhaps that’s why I so often resent young children. They’re so unbelievably lucky. They still have the chance to become ANYTHING. They don’t have to know what they want to become, they just become. I think the way we’ve been raising children in our society, that is, letting electronics and such raise them, is damaging their futures. If parents don’t raise their kids, their neighborhood friends should. So I say, we should get outside! We should practice compassion and forgiveness. We should let our inner child show itself as much as possible before it runs away. We shouldn’t give up any amount of innocence we have left to just anything. I really wish I could think of some of my own amazing stories of coming-of-age but I think I missed out on a lot of that. It happened, but it was too fleeting and negligible.
What about you?
Anybody have a distinct memory of coming-of-age?
Something that opened things up inside of you that you never knew were there?
I like stories.

I ask this because I watched my brother (skinny little thing), who hardly eats anything, become a teenage boy, in a way. I watched him delight in ordering an absurdly large amount of fast food (especially for him) and finish every single bite. It was disgusting, yes, but also hilarious and fascinating. The only thing more bizarre than realizing you’re growing up is when you watch someone very close to you grow up. Its kind of profoundly sad. Being young isn’t something we get to keep for very long.