Poemranker [Replying] Thu Nov 21 10:47:35 PST 2024

Replying to a comment on:

The Hell With Growing Up (Other) by wilco

Time is like a cancer, burning away every thread of the children that once we were. We spend our entire lives trying to recapture the wonderful feeling of a misspent youth. Driving too fast, using copious amounts of drugs and having promiscuous sex with strangers. We attempt to force the idea that these things are wrong, and all the while trying to claim them for ourselves. And can this childish hedonism really be so bad? Perhaps when you consider the times. The only difference between the foolish acts of men and boys is the severity of the punishment rendered. The death of my youth has been slow and painful, and now that it's gone I can't help but have regrets.

zodiac

31-Mar-04/5:04 PM

You see, the real rub of the matter is that if you pine so much for a life of driving fast, using drugs, and having, if not promiscuous, then certainly plentiful sex - well, you could just DO IT. Sure driving fast and drugs are illegal, but that's not very much of a deterrent since the likelihood of getting arrested for any one infraction is incredibly low. And even promiscuous sex is probably okay provided you take a couple of clinical (and emotional) precautions.

But you can't, right? Because in some respect or other you've subscribed to a notion that 'adults' don't do those things - that they weren't so great, anyway. That, or you have no way of knowing because you didn't do them in the first place. Or you're just a kid trying to posit what you should feel like if you ever grow up to be an adult. I have no way of knowing.

In any event, it follows that the 'slow and painful' 'death' of your childhood you regret so much is just the incomplete reconciliation of a so-called standard, so-called adult morality to the suspicion that those things aren't in fact so bad - or, if they are, that you just don't give a fuck about screwing up your life. You should give it some thought. Or just smoke a joint and watch the history channel for 4 hours straight with your kids.

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