Why Grow Up
Maturity doesn't have to mean disenchantment. "Savor every second," says Susan Neiman...
A lovely little thing happened during my pre-class campus stroll yesterday morning, the rare sort of student encounter that makes teaching worth the trouble.
I’d just left the solar system (the Naked Eye Observatory, less familiarly the Uranidrome) across from the Wiser-Patten science building when a voice hailed me from behind…
“Excuse me… I had you for Honors Intro to Philosophy in my freshman year and just wanted to tell you… that book you assigned, Why Grow Up?* I wasn’t mature enough then to get the message. I didn’t want to grow up. Now I get it. Just wanted to say thanks.”
Thank you, young man!
* “Growing up means realizing that no time of one's life is the best one, and resolving to savor every second of joy within reach. You know each will pass, and you no longer experience that as betrayal.”
― Susan Neiman, Why Grow Up?: Subversive Thoughts for an Infantile Age