by Jerry Thomas

Created on: August 09, 2007

What is Maturity?

At what time in one's life do we mature? Indeed what is maturity? I don't remember a date or time when I realized that I was no longer a child. I know the milestones in our lives define us. Graduation of high school. Attending college, first jobs, graduating college. Marriage, the birth of our first child. The death of love ones, our parents demise. All major events in our life give us the character of our personalities.

When we first truly realize that our lives are not finite, we start to deal with our own mortality. As children we blindly enjoy our lives, never thinking that some day the ride will end. We, as today's society, look at life as an amusement park, unlimited rides, candy, laughter if we are lucky we have parents that have seemingly endless capacities to pay for our enjoyments.
If we are lucky we don't have those kind of parents, that feel they must make up for leaving us daily to make a living. My parents worked hard all there lives, my father worked two jobs so my mother could stay home with my brother and myself. This stability was underscored with careful buying decisions on their part. This gave my brother and I the knowledge that there was no Santa Claus, no tooth fairy, Easter bunny, but they also gave us their believe in God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the fact that God helps those that helps themselves. Our childhood were fact laden and honest. We knew the classic definition of security, " the ability to perform, (tasks), ". We knew to obtain the things we thought we truly needed, my brother and I worked, first mowing neighbors lawns, with the mower our Dad bought for us to mow our lawn. Of course we would never have thought of charging our Dad to mow the lawn, because he was providing us the means to earn money outside of the home. These first lessons of economics put my brother and I of the sure course of adult responsibility. When death entered our extended family circle, our parents did not shield us,. They were bluntly honest about the cause of death, in the case of the elderly, of accidental death, they explained the theory or truth of cause and effect. Whether it be alcohol or cigarettes , premature death was always to topic on the ride home from the funeral. My brother and I were fashioned as realist at the earliest age possible! The amazing by product , cynicism , did not prevail in our lives. Our parents gave us an upbeat, positive nature, but we both worked like ants. I think we were afraid that like ants ,

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