Does Maturity Compensate For Age?

Conversely, does youth make up for immaturity?

On the one hand, insignificant matters can loom so large they overwhelm us; on the other hand, we might be blessed with a bounty of unstoppable optimism.

We might fall in love and believe it's forever, again, and again and again.... on the other, the down times seem like despair.

We look at the world through rose tinted window... and get frustrated when the windows need cleaning!

We have a narrow perspective and absolute convictions; no compromoses no negotiation!

We are easily led, casually persuaded, readily distracted, and totally loyal ... we are led by our dicks, pig-headed, small minded, big-hearted.

And all or any of the above regardless of age.

Maturity, perhaps, includes a modicum of humility, a willingness to offer love and passion with all of our being because we know that we will surviive the pain of disaappointment, even the fact of betrayal.

Perhaps, too, it includes enough self-awareness to know that we are not going to be the centre of every one's - or even a special one's universe. And maybe we become a little more patient as we see others struggling to open their wings and fly and a little less willing to devote time to velcro people, or to use their vampiric tendencies as an excuse for the choices we make about the (immature) patterns we run?

The pain of youth can be more intense, perhaps because every novel experience should be intense, but the cynical disappointment of old(er) age is like a disease that might be thought of as 'experience' but at such a terrible cost; little light or joy or delight or generosity of spirit or humility...

To be young can be wonderful and terrible, to be old(er) can be teribble and wonderful. In either case, at any age, to be without hope, to live in constant anxiety or in thrall to others is possibly the worst thing. A sure sign of immaturity at any age, but young people are, by definition, immature - even if they have insight and wisdom to offer.

To illustrate a point, many people who live (parents) or work (teachers, coundellors, etc) with youngsters, pre-teens for example, who have good vocabularies and are articulate and comfortable engaging with adults, mistake that child's verbal dexterity for maturity.
It is NOT!
And therefore, there is the risk - which often manifests - that the adults will assume the articulate child actually understands all the nuances and implications of the topics or issues being discussed. Oh, intellectually, maybe, even conceptually, but emotionally, far less likely. Ditto interpersonally and intra-personally for young people because maturation is a process of personal and interpersonal evolution.

And many people get stuck, frozen in emotional adolescence whereby they continue to think that everything is or should be about them. Whereby they are emotionally driven and live always 'at the effect' of others, which is one sure sign of immaturity.

Here's a poem by one of my favourite poets

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Che fece...Il gran rifiuto.
Constantine P. Cavafy

For some people the day comes
when they have to declare the great Yes
or the great No.

It's clear at once who has the Yes
ready within him; and saying it,
he goes from honour to honour, strong in his conviction.
He who refuses does not repent.
Asked again,he would still say no.
Yet that no - the right no -
drags him down all his life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
go well