Childhoods' End?
Childhoods' End -- Arthur C. Clarke
The master writer talks about how the human race re-integrates with the parent race and childhood as we know it has come to and end. I read this book a long time ago maybe sometime in 1996-97. I was too young to fully appreciate it but it has left a lasting impact on my mind.
Yet for most of us aliens don't cause the end of our own childhoods.
In response to arwind's post
The realness of our early life where most people moved towards a specific goal and knew that they would know if they got there has now be replaced by a kind of realness of early adult life. We know (some) what that we are working towards something but have no way of knowing when we got there. That why idiomatic goals replace real ones -- for example arwind has mentioned often marriage in his posts of late. Marriage is not a goal in its self. However the notion of marriage is an idiom for a number of other changes that come along with it. Resolving this IMO is a simple matter of doing what you did in your earlier years. Set definite goals for your self and set yourself a date for them. For example, if you want to find a better half set yourself that goal and *do* something about it. The truth is earlier our exams were forced upon us and we took them reasonably seriously, now those exams are no longer forced down our throats and we tend not to take them seriously. Suddenly we are left with a bunch of "goals" and yet we find that our life is drifting.
Where do we go from here? I have find my self drifting with increasingly frequency these days. Losing passion for my day job makes it worse. Presented with this situation I find that it helps to set yourself realistic goals and keep working towards them. It's alright if they don't revolve around love, money and power.
The master writer talks about how the human race re-integrates with the parent race and childhood as we know it has come to and end. I read this book a long time ago maybe sometime in 1996-97. I was too young to fully appreciate it but it has left a lasting impact on my mind.
Yet for most of us aliens don't cause the end of our own childhoods.
In response to arwind's post
The realness of our early life where most people moved towards a specific goal and knew that they would know if they got there has now be replaced by a kind of realness of early adult life. We know (some) what that we are working towards something but have no way of knowing when we got there. That why idiomatic goals replace real ones -- for example arwind has mentioned often marriage in his posts of late. Marriage is not a goal in its self. However the notion of marriage is an idiom for a number of other changes that come along with it. Resolving this IMO is a simple matter of doing what you did in your earlier years. Set definite goals for your self and set yourself a date for them. For example, if you want to find a better half set yourself that goal and *do* something about it. The truth is earlier our exams were forced upon us and we took them reasonably seriously, now those exams are no longer forced down our throats and we tend not to take them seriously. Suddenly we are left with a bunch of "goals" and yet we find that our life is drifting.
Where do we go from here? I have find my self drifting with increasingly frequency these days. Losing passion for my day job makes it worse. Presented with this situation I find that it helps to set yourself realistic goals and keep working towards them. It's alright if they don't revolve around love, money and power.