John Linton .....but with only the bad and annoying (mainly to females) bits.
There are any number of ways of getting any aspect of human life 'wrong' and far less ways to get any aspect 'right' - and males seem to get more wrong, more often and for much longer chunks of their lives than females ever do who, at least in their own estimations 'mature' almost from the day they are born. Today is one of those days where I was once again reminded of something I have known since I clearly seriously disappointed an early girl friend in my early 20s whose parting phrase was something close to "John Linton, you're a typical male - you'll never grow up!" (the exact bitter wording has faded from my memory over the years - but I've never forgotten the imputation and as the years pass I see the essential truth of it more and more clearly). Some/most males seldom 'grow up' before their late 30s and an awful lot of males, me included, seem to never grow up in the ways females expect us to do at all.
While Helen Herbert (I still remember her name after all of these years - she was a truly sweet young girl (woman?) and I can still hear her heels click clacking angrily away as she spun on her heel and stormed down George Street) was almost certainly right in her early condemnation of my complete lack of 'seriousness' (though really - what male of 21 or 22 ever shows the slightest sign of 'maturity'?) she was quite correct in that over the succeeding decades I never did grow up in the ways that many females seem to expect although, in my own defence, that is partly because I have never seen any particular virtue in 'growing up' in the ways that phrase is often used and have actually made many conscious decisions over the years that I would prefer to think about and do things in ways that are deemed to be lacking in a 'grown up' way.
Certainly not all males are afflicted with this curse but I imagine all those 'grown up' serious males never were anything but grown up from the day they were born..... if not from the day they were born then at least by the time they reached senior school where they always did their assigned studies completely and on time and never played any sport for the joy of it (or took part in any other non-scholastic activities) but, when they did, it was only because they were told it was good for their overall development. If you look at today's male presidents and prime minister's of countries or the heads of the world's gigantic corporations do you actually see any 'grown ups'? You may see the results of over arching ambition and avarice but do you see any 'maturity'? Even leaving out the extreme examples of John Kennedy and Bill Clinton or, in a different way, Richard Nixon can you name a single American President or leader of any other country that could be labeled a "good" let alone a "mature" man?
This is one of those days for personal reflection when you look back at the past years of your life with either regret (I assume if you're a serious minded sort of person) or in my case with a vaguely regretful wry smile of indulgence at your lack of ambition or achievement and reflect on how much time and opportunity you have 'wasted' each year so far. For me, this only lasts for the briefest of moments.....but on this particular day I did remember that sweet young girl's dire prediction and feel grateful that she so clearly saw that my inadequacies were not only many and varied but that I would be incapable of ever moving towards more serious ways of looking at and living life. I hope she found someone more suitable and serious to spend the rest of her life with who added enjoyment, if not joy, to her every waking moment.
Such observations aren't really 'true' - most males are capable of, and do, often act in a mature and sensible manner when called upon to do so. I just think and have observed that the vast majority of males, me included, continue to act and think irresponsibly when the opportunity arises which it seems to do more than often enough for females of any disapproving age (from about 3 onwards) to be able to screw up their faces and bark out "typically irresponsible male" for the rest of our lives.
I would agree that females should run every aspect of life (assuming you don't think they do already) but then some clowns let people like Ms Faustus have more overt power and responsibility and you realise how dreadful the world would be without male irresponsibility.
Sorry about inflicting the last few hundred words of nonsense on you in a typically male waste of time but it's my birthday and I'm getting the 'serious' reflections on my wasted life to date out of the way so I can indulge in the childish male activities of spending time with the people I really like and eating my favourite food and drinking far too many alcohol flavored drinks.
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