Monday, August 2, 2010

When Did Being Mature = Being Boring?

There's this commercial for a cheese cracker that features cheese being immature before being ready to be used in their product. Cute idea but I have just one little gripe here:

When did maturity = boredom?

Seriously, does being a capable & responsible person mean I'm supposed to be sitting around boring the hell out of you??? Does it make one immature to play the occasional practical joke on someone or say something particularly cutting? If that's the case, pretty much everyone around me is immature (including me).

However, I would define immaturity as being irresponsible with your money, not paying child support or being a proper parent to your kids, and generally acting like a 5 year old when life doesn't turn out like you want it to.

I think someone who can laugh at themselves, play occasional harmless jokes on others & be a good smart ass is a person with spirit. A kid at heart, if you will. My mom's a good example of a kid at heart: she'd go trick or treating with us on Halloween as kids & will still go out with her grandsons. Part of it may be a safety thing but she'll actually dress up in costume, unlike most parents. I feel like my husband was deprived in a way because his parents weren't like that. My dad's also like this, though he did different things with us like taking us to the park or the swimming pool.

One thing I've observed is that the minute you start fitting society's definition of a "grown up", that's when your soul dies. You become "the Man" & I don't mean that in a good way. I mean you become a drudge that lacks any imagination, creativity or right brain skills that are just as important as any left brain skill. Thankfully, my sister is also a kid at heart so my nephews won't be forced to deal with a parent who's too busy being old to relate to them in a meaningful way.

I'm never going to be the sort discussing my 401K with people who aren't in the financial industry or giving me advice on that sort of thing. Yeah, I use big words & might talk about legal stuff but I speak about practical matters instead of using crazy legal jargon that confuses me.

But this maturity = boring thing just bothers me on many levels. Does this mean everyone working in the industry are just overgrown adolescents?? Some people, maybe but everyone??? Give me a break. If having a personality & thinking about more than boring adult stuff makes me immature, then I'll embrace that with a smile on my face. I'm sure plenty of others would do the same.

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