On Maturity

[CronoDekar]

False maturity is when you think you're too old to engage in childish activities.

True maturity comes when you realize childish activities are still fun.

That's been my line of thought for awhile now! The whole "false maturity among young people" thing doesn't really bother me though -- it's just something I see many people go through. Or at least, I went through.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I've always liked the line "We don't stop playing games because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing games."

 

[Zander]

C.S. Lewis, author of the Narnia stories, put it best when he said: "Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being an adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up." My emphasis.

 

[fusangite]

What's the point in being grown up if you can't act childish once in a while? -- the Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker).

I could have sworn that was a Jon Pertwee-Katie Manning episode.

 

[kirinke]

I think that many adults would benefit from playing games, any game. Without imagination, there would be no inventors, no progress, no enrichment. Without imagination, people would have no hope. People without hope or imagination are easier to control. And that is what some institutions are afraid of. Loss of control. So be it. Encourage children to dream. Encourage them to hope. Encourage them to change what they can for the better. And like a snowball moving down-hill, this will encourage them to help others change things for the better. It all starts with imagination.

 

[Navior]

I could have sworn that was a Jon Pertwee-Katie Manning episode.

No, it was Tom Baker's first story, "Robot". Sarah and the Doctor have been arguing a bit and she tells the Doctor that he's acting childish. The Doctor responds with, "Of course I'm acting childish! What's the point in being grown up if you can't act childish once in a while?"

There are some people I know who would tell me I'm very immature for having these sorts of things memorised. And I say, who cares?

 

[fusangite]

No, it was Tom Baker's first story, "Robot". Sarah and the Doctor have been arguing a bit and she tells the Doctor that he's acting childish. The Doctor responds with, "Of course I'm acting childish! What's the point in being grown up if you can't act childish once in a while?"

There are some people I know who would tell me I'm very immature for having these sorts of things memorised. And I say, who cares?

There's an earlier Pertwee episode, when the TARDIS still can't leave earth without the Time Lords' consent when the doctor states something quite similar during a tantrum caused by piece of equipment blowing up. I'll see if I can remember the episode. But thanks for the reference.

 

[Pielorinho]

Here, here!

There, there.

I love the CS Lewis quote. He and I have our little disagreements, but the man had some moments of great profundity. One of the things I love about my family is everyone's willingness to play games.

Daniel