Prolonged Adolescence

When I mentioned our culture had problems with immature obsessions, such as adolescent fantasy and material possession, I was talking about a culture that condones, and even nurtures, prolonged adolescence in adults.

How did so many of my generation fall into the trap…prolonged adolescence? Why do young adults resent having to work and wish they could just play more? Why do middle aged adults believe we are only successful Americans if we are rich and can retire by the age of 40? Why aren't we seeking to be wise? Yes, I am making efforts to accept time's inevitable mark, I still feel a stab of fear every time I see a commercial about a new, scientifically designed, age defying serum? Should I buy it? Could it be that I have been slowly indoctrinated and fallen prey to a consumer driven culture whose success depends on my fear of age, physical corruption and death. If an advertiser's pitches can convince us that age is a disease we must fight, then, by golly, we seem to be willing to fight it tooth and nail and pocketbook.

We forget something very important when we choose to engage in an obsessive war against age and death? Caught in that futile struggle, we forget the most important part of life is embracing our human condition and spiritually transcending it. As we vainly strive to stay physically young are we arresting our emotional, mental and spiritual development too? We forget that growing older is natural and a needed part of cultural development. We need people in our culture to embrace age gladly, so they can then turn inward to seek wisdom and, after wisdom, seek to share what they have learned. It is the true adolescent who needs us, the older generation, to shed light on the path ahead. We should not betray the youth of this country by telling them age is a fearful disease that only leads to disability and death. We should demonstrate how beautiful the aging process can be when we embrace it as a joyous path that leads to wholeness and Life.