coming of age and neo liberal economics
I have been thinking recently (far too much time on my hands . . .) a lot about coming of age recently, and what it means to be an adult. In the not too distant past different cultures had different ways of celebrating the movement from youth to adulthood. Vestiges of these rites remain, such as marriage and moving out, but these days there is no clear sense of being an adult--we seem to be stuck in this constant state of becoming. Now, this means that young people, such as myself, walk a fine line when determining that strange growth out of childhood. in some ways I'll always consider myself a kid because I can't stand certain ways we define adulthood in my culture, but in other ways I feel ready to move beyond the realm of innocence into some kind of challenging experience. In many ways I have been doing this, as we all have, for the last ten years. The problem is that without clear cut rites, without someone telling us now you're an adult, many young people wind up being childish (as opposed to childlike) all their lives. Of course, the other extreme is all too prevalent as well--overly responsible, all too serious people, going around doing serious things with no time to enjoy life. What I'm realizing, though, is that despite the lack of clear cut movement from one stage of life into another, or perhaps precisely because of it, young people today are inordinately free. We are able to make our own rituals. You can go into the desert at the end of every summer, make art and burn it all down, like I've done for the last two years. You can travel, you can meditate, you can prove to yourself what it means to be an adult. It is up to us to find our own ways--and that's an extremely powerful gift. So while many flounder I hope all of you "youth" are making--or have made your way--successfully into a stage of your life that offers new experience, and remember that no matter how old we get we're always learning. To the "adults"--I hope you've retained your sense of innocence that should never get old. more ramblings. . .