Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Living in Never Land


I won't grow up
I don't wanna go to school
Just learn to be a parrot
And recite a silly rule
If growing up means
It would be beneath my dignity to climb a tree,
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me!
Not I,
Not me!
Not me!
I won't grow up
I don't wanna wear a tie.
And a serious expression
In the middle of July.
And if it means I must prepare
To shoulder burdens with a worried air,
 
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me
Not I,
Not me!
So there!
Never gonna be a man,
I won't!
Like to see somebody try
And make me.
Anyone who wants to try
And make me turn into a man,
Catch me if you can.
I won't grow up.
Not a penny will I pinch.
I will never grow a mustache,
Or a fraction of an inch.
'Cause growing up is awfuller
Than all the awful things that ever were.
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up,
No sir,
Not I,
Not me,
So there!
 
I won't grow up!
I will never even try
I will do what Peter tells me
And I'll never ask him why
 
We won't grow up!
We will never grow a day
And if someone tries to make it
We will simply run away.
 
I won't grow up!
No, I promise that I won't
I will stay a boy forever
And be banished if I don't.
 
And Never Land will always be
The home of beauty and joy
And neverty
I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up
Not me!
Not me!
Not me!
Not me!
No sir!
Not me!
 
"I don't wanna grow up" from Peter Pan
 
Do you remember when you were young, when you couldn't wait to grow up and make your own rules, live your own life?  Do you remember when you willingly ate ramon noodles and drove a junker car just so that you could afford rent and be the king of your own castle?  Do you remember the nervous excitement you felt as you embarked on adulthood - your determination to prove to your parents and the world that your were ready to shoulder the mantle of adult responsibility?  Do you remember when you embraced adulthood?
 
For generations children have aspired, almost from infancy, to achieve the coveted status of adulthood.  From the time they can crawl, they want to walk - when they can walk, they want to run.  An independent and self-reliant spirit seems to be ingrained in their very being.  In past generations, this independence and self-reliance was encouraged from every corner.  Parents required chores at an early age.  Teachers demanded a disciplined demeanor and rigorous academic acumen.  While still children they were being prepared to shoulder the responsibilities of society.  They were being trained to succeed, flourish even, in a future of their own making.  Their daily life prepared them for all that life would require of them.  It prepared them to build, to lead, to govern. 
 
That was then.  Now, in modern day America, we live in Never Land.  Our children don't want to grow up, but even worse, our parent, our teachers and our leaders don't want to grow up.  We want to live in a perpetual state of childhood, where all of our needs are anticipated and met by someone other than ourselves.  We want to be coddled and fed and told what to do.  We want someone else to be responsible for us when we've made bad decisions and we want to be bailed out when we experience the consequences of riotous living.  We don't want to have to suffer or work or struggle.  And when it comes right down to it, we are more than willing to "Do what Peter tells us - and never ask him why" in exchange for never growing up.  America has become a nation of "Lost Boys".
 
Although Disney would have us believe that Peter Pan was a charming, fun-loving, altruistic boy, the truth is that he stole children from their families, used them in his own social experiments and then killed them when their population threatened to overrun his island.  How charming is that? 
 
And that, my friends, is where America is heading - to Never Land.  If we refuse to grow up, refuse to suffer, to work or to struggle, we will forever be living in Never Land. We will be the Lost Boys - never to experience the exhilaration of adulthood, the joy of responsibility or the incalculable power of freedom.
 
America is a country designed for adults.  Are we up to the challenge, or are we Lost Boys living in Never land?
 




12 comments:

  1. At fourteen my granddaughter gave her parents her baby-sitting money to put in her college fund. Her reasoning was that she wanted to be a teacher and would not make a huge salary if, as she wants, she teaches in a Christian school. Therefore she wanted to get out of college without student loans if possible. Time has gone by and as she approaches college she still has the same dreams and the same habit of saving toward the future. Her sibling never spends her earnings on herself but is generous to others and saves toward college also. They are members of a tithing, saving family, that gives to others and lives fairly simply. Children learn by what they see their parents do. The pattern now is for adults to live for the day and not consider the future. What else can we expect from the younger people.

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    1. My daughter put herself through college and now college at least to the associate degree is
      paid for.i want her to get her bachlers degree maybe in English as a second language.
      She wants to go out on the missions field
      Blessings
      Debby

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  2. The even scarier part of this is that at some point in the future, these "lost boys" will be the ones in charge. When the current generation of adults who are catering to these children pass on, there will be no one to coddle and serve these self centered children. What happens to America then?

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    1. Have you ever read last of the breed by Lous L amour. I do not think that he was a
      Christian by any means, but?? In this book you see the principle do unto others as you would
      have them do unto you. The people that helped this man, got help themselves and the ones
      that wanted him dead, die themselves. Please read
      Blessings
      Debby

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  3. Our life is simply too easy. We all have food, TV's, air conditioning, cars, smart phones, spending money, literally everything we want. Our poor live as well or better then the middle class of Europe does. Life is good, play video games unti 2 AM and sleep till noon. Until we have a crisis along the lines of WW II or the great depression we will continue to kick back. The real question is: will we be able to get or stuff together once the crisis hits in time to deal with it? And make no mistake it will hit, history shows us it will and most likely at the worst possible time.

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  4. Thank you for this great post!! Those who will not grow up can never be free in any meaningful way.

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  5. A while ago I read some of the biography of the man who wrote "Peter Pan." He had a sad, sad life to say the least. From what I remember, his younger brother was the favorite of their mother but was tragically killed at a very young age and, I think, in front of the mother and his older brother. His death messed them both up. The author of "Peter Pan" developed some weird, Oedipus-type relationship with his mother all tied in with this idea of never, never growing up. The biography really creeped me out. I'll never again think of the story of Peter Pan the same way - as though it's some light-hearted childhood tale.

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  6. Most of those "light-hearted tales" aren't so light-hearted at all. Most of them, if you read the original story instead of watching the Disneyfied version, are allegorical pieces of social commentary. My middle two and I have been having a ball working our way through Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (one that translated to film in a relatively unmolested form, at least the first time around).

    I think the "Lost Boys" are already in charge, or at least picking the leaders. All according to plan, sadly.

    When I look back on myself as a young woman, I do not remember being eager to grow up. It was something I dreaded but knew I must do. I had to be marched out of my father's house, and each step down the road thereafter (except, oddly, motherhood, into which I happily charged blind and bullheaded-- probably a good thing, or else I never would have done it at all). Each year, as I looked at my life and still saw pleasures and joys, I wondered when I would finally "grow up." When all was seriousness and fear, and I knew all the answers and was totally constrained by them, then I would "be grown up."

    I think we can do our children three great favors to help them along the way to adulthood:

    1) Give them responsibilities. Maturity isn't something bestowed by the "grown-up fairy" at 18 or 21 or 25. It's earned incrementally, by doing things and MAKING MISTAKES. Let them make those mistakes, as much as we can, while they are under our wings and close to the groud.

    2) Give them freedoms. They need the room to experiment and fail. The kids I knew that "never grew up," for the most part, were the ones who were not given a measure of time to run and shout and fail as children.

    3) Please, for the Love of God, don't tell them to "enjoy being young now," or ask them "when they are going to grow up, for crying out loud." My folks did most things right, but I remember vividly, from the time I was very small, perceiving adulthood as the end of all joys. I did not "finally feel grown-up" until I sank into the depths of depression. Getting up each day, forcing myself to go through the motions, in a life controlled by fear and devoid of joy, I finally "felt adult."

    I think I goofed. Make that failed utterly. I hope to teach my children that adulthood is a responsibility they can rise to, but also a time of pleasures and joys (just ones that are different-- sometimes-- from the joys of childhood).

    Sometimes. Because, as I find my way back to LIFE again, some of my greatest joys have been childish pleasures-- teaching my son to skip a stone, picking flowers with my daughters, climbing a tree.

    I am a grown-up. I can keep a house, deal with a crisis, and make decisions. Of course I want my children to see that, and grow into it. I can also laugh, be spontaneous, run and play. I want my kids to see that and carry it, too, with them as they grow.

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  7. Unfortunately, we as adults have let this go too far. I have lived a little so the ones I am concerned for are those born from the 90's and up. They are the ones who will inherit this screwed up US. However is it possible that there may be better place to live then the US?

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  8. One more post...

    Thank you, Enola, for a delightful birthday gift. It was a great pleasure to wash my dishes, square my children away, and sit down before my computer to find a word from you as I turn another year older.

    Many blessings.

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  9. I've eaten a metric boatload of Ramen ( I will eat the stuff once in a great while now..), my first three cars weren't running when I got them (good learning experiences!), lived in places that would be delicately described as substandard (more learning experiences-teaches "available materials domestic engineeering"), I've lost most of my molars because I couldn't afford 1/10th of a year's pay to salvage one tooth ( when they were handing out teeth, I must've gotten the cheap models). All told, I consider it all nonstop learning experiences, and there is some satisfaction in conquering a problem yourself.

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  10. I too fear for my country. The ones that never grew up are already running the country and doing a horrible job. I was so pleased to see a new MSG from you! They are always so very insightful and I do enjoy them. Thanks

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