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A Word about “Adulting”

A Word about “Adulting”

“Adulting is Hard” 

I have mixed feelings about nouns being used as verbs, but I understand the sentiment.  I also enjoyed:

In fact, any of us can accurately personalize the phrase. I can easily say, “Harolding is Hard.” So is “Daviding” and “Janing.” You get the point.

Allow me three brief observations:

1. The principle is not new.  Probably, it has been around since the   beginning of humankind.

Remember Peter Pan and the Lost Boys?

The Lost Boys are characters from J. M. Barrie’s play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up.  They are boys “who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way and if they are not claimed in seven days, they are sent far away to the Neverland” where Peter Pan is their captain.

2.  In 1978, Dr. Scott Peck wrote what has become his classic, The Road Less Traveled.

I have always appreciated his opening sentence, “Life is difficult.” But the following sentences set the tone for the rest of the book, a book about responsibility, maturity and yes, growing up!

This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we truly know that life is difficult–once we truly understand and accept it–then life is no longer difficult.  Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is difficult no longer matters. . . 

Life is a series of problems.  Do we want to moan about them or solve them?  Do we want to teach our children to solve them?

3.  Years ago, a friend sent me the following greeting card:

Yes, life is difficult and adulting is hard.

But life is also full of joyful possibilities and wonderful opportunities. 

I hope you won’t allow the challenges to keep you from the blessings!

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