Trade-offs

The Mister is posting about hope -- something we'd been discussing last night before going to the Springsteen Concert. After reading it, I told him that I found it sad, but beautifully written. He responded by observing that, when writing, he hadn't thought the subject sad so much as a function of grown-up reality, but, upon reflection, agreed that it was sad. My reaction is below:

Some grownup realities are sad. At least, that's how it strikes me. Being a child prepares you to be a grown up in some ways; in others, it doesn't. Of course, the alternative would be for children to be mini-grownups, as they were in Puritanical times. That's probably no good, either. But our days are neither as frivolous nor as lighthearted as in our respective childhoods.

In fairness, lots of grown-up realities are not sad; they're, in fact, better than childhood realities. We get to set our own schedules, not eat our vegetables if we don't want to, come and go as we please, and so on. We get to drink liquor, drive fast cars, and have sex (assuming someone is willing to sleep with us). I just question the wisdom of the grownup realities that aren't fun. Are they all necessary -- taxes, and long hours, and jobs, and insurance, and rent? I guess the living as a communal collective only has so many strengths in today's society. But by buying into them, so many of us do work we don't like -- or aren't good at -- or both -- for salaries that are too low to afford homes we don't like that are far from the jobs we don't like.

I guess it's the price we pay for health care, infrastructure, and the like. Still, even if we don't rebel, it's probably advisable to question the wisdom of it all from time to time, no?