Neil Gaiman www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com The World's End The World's End getting older
www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com The World's End The World's End getting older|
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what do you think about...
When you're young, stories are more important than life. Whe you grow older, life gets more important than stories. -- filobus http://inunmomento.blogspot.com/ |
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Wigber Member  |
As one whose semi-functional body has put him in near death circumstances more than once, I say that the fact that I can still get up and do something is more important than anything else.
---------------------------------- It's all done with mirrors, don't you know? |
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working on his degree in brapping Member  |
i'm not a fan of it, but i figure the alternative is probably worse.
_______________________________________ WARNING: the preceding message is not to be taken personally. Keep away from children. *** Inactivist of the Radical Status Quo |
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is part of the international oatmeal conspiracy Member  |
its weird!
i've started to act like the 18 year old i never was! High Ranking Official of the Realm of Unproductivity and Procrastination, Dean of the UUP, First Class member of the order of the Pineapple. scruffy ambulating reanimated hypothetical vegetarian leigonairre of the undead. ~ Cav Look, I've got a cape and a tendency towards violence. It does not make me a superhero! ~ Domitella |
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has no member title Member  |
It's less that life gets more *important* than stories. More that you have more life to contemplate than before.
I mean come on. Until you're eighteen you basically spend your life in an aquarium. You know nothing about life, you can just invent your stories about it. It's only later that you actually start having something real to focus on. __ The brickchewing, camera flaunting restroom saint formerly known as Babylon the Bride |
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Goofy Beast Member  |
Good answer, Babylon. The more responsibilities you have (and those you definitely collect over time), the more of your time you have to spend in the 'real world' dealing with them.
Although it also depends on what is meant by "stories". In a way, societal pressures - the things you're expected to do - are also stories, in the sense that they have no external reality but are passed on from generation to generation. The story of how you're supposed to have a husband/wife, the story of how you're supposed to have kids, otherwise there's something wrong with you - you're not a proper grown-up, or you're selfish and shallow. Chances are that those kinds of stories remain as important, arguably. |
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is in perfect karmic alignment Member  |
For me getting older means (for now) becoming more like the person you want to *be* instead of trying to figure out who you are.
In the story-simile (which i find difficult) that would mean you get to write your own stories, instead of listening to someone elses. That also means you have to own up to however good or bad they are. ~You are a *Taverner*. Sometimes patrons want to go where everybody knows their names, though it helps when half of them are named John. When people want to celebrate, or commiserate, they gather to your establishment. You provide the atmosphere, the warmth, rum, and even an ear to bend. Did I mention the rum? Years before the language will be mangled with terms like facilitator and networking and interpersonal communication, you've overseen it all, and broken up a few bar fights, to boot.~ -Royko |
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Goofy Beast Member |
I definitely like my older-than-25-years me better than my younger me, which may have something to do with feeling that I'm no longer trying to figure myself out all the time.
I think that in some ways as a younger person you have more fool's licence to play around, which you don't have to the same extent when you get older. Certain bigger things are expected of you than when you're young. Not all of those things are necessarily good or sensible, but the expectations are still there. |
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the colours . . . the colours Member  |
I much prefer who I am now to who I was when I was 18. That said, I had a crisis in 2003/2004 (board passim ad nauseum
 ) which changed who I was to a great extent.So it could be said that a lot of me is only 4 years old.  *** "objective evidence & certitude are doubtless very fine ideals to play with, but where on this moonlit & dream-visited planet are they found?" William James |
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Has no front teeth Member  |
Good answer Babs. It pretty much covers it for me except-
@Lester- Halleluja Brotha! Testify! ______________________ Fandangling across the moony sky, went the Beezee bold as brass, side-saddle she sat, on a big painted bat, shooting moonbeams out of her a(censored)e. ~Joe ________________________ Isn't sanity really just a one trick pony, anyway? I mean, all you get is one trick, rational thinking! But when you're good and crazy¦ooh ooh ooh the sky's the limit! |
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is in perfect karmic alignment Member |
<nitpick alert> that is *if* you're lucky. Some kids learn a lot more about life before they're 18 than i'm comfortable with or happy about. </nitpick alert>
Breed da**it! Breeeeed! ~You are a *Taverner*. Sometimes patrons want to go where everybody knows their names, though it helps when half of them are named John. When people want to celebrate, or commiserate, they gather to your establishment. You provide the atmosphere, the warmth, rum, and even an ear to bend. Did I mention the rum? Years before the language will be mangled with terms like facilitator and networking and interpersonal communication, you've overseen it all, and broken up a few bar fights, to boot.~ -Royko |
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has no member title Member |
I think you'll find that those kids with a lot of life experience will be more interested in life than in stories - unless it's for escapist reasons. Still, even if you're an experienced street kid - yeah, you're making a lot of experiences, but they're all from a certain environment. What you lack is the broadness of experience, the comparison, the insights into how people other than you and your subset of friends live and think. Those are the things that start colouring your thinking more than the potential what-ifs that are what stories of youth are often comprised of. __ The brickchewing, camera flaunting restroom saint formerly known as Babylon the Bride |
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Don't. Blink. Member  |
Well actually some people live much longer in the aquarium. There are people in their 30s who are still there. And as Pfins pointed out some kids who get pulled out much much earlier so - perhaps this all has less to do with age than with experience and exposure to the world. ------------------------------ "I claim the capacity to doubt." - Herman Wouk ------------------------------- "They warn you about killers and thieves in night I worry about cancer and living right But my mama never warned me about my own Destructive appetite" - Jenny Lewis "Happy" |
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has no member title Member |
I don't think anybody expects the original statemtent
To be strictly true of every person in every circumstance. Particularly, I don't suppose it suggests that the aging of the body cells reduces people's interest in stories. The most common byproduct of age is the growth of experience. Some get it faster, some slower. But as far as this discussion is concerned, I will assume that the two are intended to go hand in hand. __ The brickchewing, camera flaunting restroom saint formerly known as Babylon the Bride |
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has no member title Member |
Good point. I think it's also this: When you're younger, you still have all the possibilities. You don't know yet who you're going to be, what you're going to change into, where you are going. As you grow older, the doors start closing. You find yourself moving in particular directions, settle down into who you are and who you are becoming. It's no wonder that a youth in which there is lots of potential but not much that is solid is more prone to see importance in what-ifs (and what are stories but what-ifs?) than age that is moving inexorably towards the final, inavoidable status quo. __ The brickchewing, camera flaunting restroom saint formerly known as Babylon the Bride |
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is in perfect karmic alignment Member |
When Lester was still young and spry He craved no less than earth and sky However old his body be His mind o’errulled continually You’ll heed to me You’ll heed to me But older did his body get And grumbled more, got more upset Avenged itself most viciously You’ll heed to *me* You’ll heed to me His mind was young still, it was filled With stubberness, and strongly willed Get up again and you will see You’ll heed to me You’ll heed to me His body it retaliatèd Try that again and you be dead! His mind ignored that stern decree You’ll heed to me, you’ll heed to me Body avenged itself in pain The heart it stopped, and started again And body said “you dolt. You see?! You’ll have to finally heed to me. Not Les who hopped and travelled much And skipped and did things and somesuch Heart said, did you forget about me? You’ll have to heed, to heed to *me* In the end he got to see He needed to heed his body The end result, that Lester Z Applied himself professionally To pretty loo-photography. ~You are a *Taverner*. Sometimes patrons want to go where everybody knows their names, though it helps when half of them are named John. When people want to celebrate, or commiserate, they gather to your establishment. You provide the atmosphere, the warmth, rum, and even an ear to bend. Did I mention the rum? Years before the language will be mangled with terms like facilitator and networking and interpersonal communication, you've overseen it all, and broken up a few bar fights, to boot.~ -Royko |
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has no member title Member |
LOL!
Awesome. __ The brickchewing, camera flaunting restroom saint formerly known as Babylon the Bride |
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Adoration of the Modii Member  |
As one of those "taken out of the fishbowl early".. I have to say that exposure and experience are only part of it... I believe it was Jung that mentions that certain tramas "freeze" our phyches in time.. if that be the case I am a 13 y/o.. but I have never exactly been "young", per se.. at least not mentally... I feel that comprehension of life.. and our place in life is really what "getting older" is about.. not exactly settling down in the "adult idea".. not necessarily taking up "adult responsibilities" (there are several adults that don't).. some folks are meant to view the world through the glass of the fishbowl... I do love the idea put forth by D'lenn on Babylon 5: "We view Life as the Universe trying to understand itsself. We are part of the Universe." that might be the corect quote or no.. but it is something like that.
Just to say that some of us are "born old" as in understanding things well beyond their years.. while some never seem to "grow up".. I feel that the best way is to be old in mind and young at "heart".. strive for the balance.. -- Give a man a fish, he eats for the day; Teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime; Teach that man to cook, and he can feed the world.... *********************** Head chef in the Realm of Procrastination and Unproductivity, Dp.u.: "You want fries with that?" Holder for the Golden Pineapple Pin. ------------------------------------------------ If it is on the plate, its food. If it crawls off the plate; Kill it and put it back on the plate. ------------------------------------ I love small furry creatures; especially in a good sauce. |
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Companion to owls Member  |
I don't really understand the question. It seems to imply that, when you're older, you shouldn't care for stories as much as when you were younger; and that when you're young you don't really care about life that much? Is that it?
Stories are important to me. My dreams are. Just because 'real life' demands so much more from me now (which is bad in some cases, and very good in other ones as has been pointed out) -is there any reason to choose or somehow downgrade the role of stories in one's life? I do read less nowadays, and daydream less, because I have less time (or manage it worse), but they're still as important. They pull me out of myself, out of my everyday experiences and let me have a glimpse of actions, feelings and situations outwith my regular life. I can learn from them, get joy or sorrow from them, look at my own life from a different angle, find similes... And yes, sometimes I can escape and that is important too. And I don't think I ever thought my life was less important when I was younger. Maybe the line between fantasy and reality was less defined -that doesn't mean my life was less important than a story, it means that, for my younger self, my life and my story where the same thing. And it was vital -not only because I thought maybe I was going to have to save the world or do something amazing, but because my life seeme dso absolutely wonderful and exciting. And, you know what? I miss that, and think it would be a good thing if we got to keep a bit of that attitude.  |
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here Member  |
In my experience, this isn't true.
I've worked with adult clients who, due to old age, illness, or injury, have lost their ability to tell stories and regaining the ability to tell stories is extraordinarily important to people. One of the things that I've learned this semester (I guess I've always known it, but this semester I've really focused on it) is how grown-up-like children are right from Day 1. The way pretend evolves into narrative play which evolves into "real life" is seamless; there is no boundary between story and life. Go to the library and look up Michael Tomasello for books on how narrative defines our experience. |
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