Peter Pan Part 3 and Nanowrimo: Growing Up

 
"Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor.   But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.
It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things." ~1 Corinthians 13:9-11~


The important moment passed (talking about something mentioned in this previous post).  Okay I'll tell you.  I....... started driving.  And I was terrified the whole time.  But I grew just 1/100th more confident. lol It's like that book, "Do Hard Things," which is a really good book and you should read it.  Doing stuff out of our comfort zones that are good for us will stretch us and strengthen us.  To be honest I'm still a little afraid to go to the dentist, but I'm used to it now and I go anyway. 
Boys have always intimidated me and they still do... but I'm trying to figure them out a bit more now.  In a way I am Rapunzel.  And I can NOT figure out how she got to be so comfortable around Flynn the moment they set out on the adventure.  In real life, we act differently to different people.  Everyone uses a different range of vocabulary, and sometimes in order for them to understand our polite meanings, we have to "speak their language".  This is what we do as we grow up.  When I first saw the 2003 version of Peter Pan when I was... twelve or eleven, I started crying because I didn't want to grow up.  It seemed so sad to me.

If you listen to the first minute and a half of this song, you'll get what I mean.  Listen while you read.  And I'll talk about this version, the 2003 one, of Peter Pan in another post.  But for a teaser, I liked it a lot.

 As a child I thought that to grow up...
1.  I wouldn't have any more fun.
2.  I would stop having faith (I do believe in fairies!  I do!  I do!) because of having to be realistic.
3.  There's something about childhood that's magical, and I thought I'd have to forget it.
4.  I would have to become mean and not have time to play with children.  But now I realize that we get to choose who we will become, and it's a very important thing to do while we are young.
5.  Growing up is a step closer to growing old and ugly(lol I know, but you're thinking it too I'm sure!).
6.  And it's another step closer to... dying.  I shall quote Death from The Book Thief here:  "When the time comes, don't panic."  ... don't be afraid.  God will give you the strength you need just in time, to quote the Hiding Place.  And all good stories must end, except the everlasting one, which is the best of them all. 
7.  I don't know... I felt like there should have been something else.  The thought of growing up just sounded boring and sad.
Now I remember.  The effects of seeing all the sorrow in the world made adults seem hard-hearted and cold to me.  And as we age we learn more about death and suicides.  And it saddens us and makes it harder to be brave.  When you think about it, being brave helps us to grow.  The word "brave" always made me feel special, and whenever I had to tell myself to "be brave," it then seemed easier to do.  To kill a roach, for me, is to be brave lol.  To walk in the dark is to be brave.  And then... so is driving.

 Being stuck young will only keep important things from happening.

 

There's the good stuff about growing up too.
1.  There's freedom to go where you like and spend your own money and live where you like and go into debt... oh well there's responsibility that comes with power.  Spiderman...
2.  You're moving forward and letting go of the past.  This is good too, though hold on to the stuff you've learned.  "Keep moving forward."  That's from Meet the Robinsons Disney movie.  It made me cry.
3.  When we grow up... we tend to fall in love.  And when that happens we tend to get married and have children to tell stories to.  Though staying single is good too, if you're hard at work somewhere.  Paul was single because he had a lot of work to do. 
4.  Growing up is something we've gone through since before the day we were born.  It's only natural.  It's like change, and time itself.  It's always ticking, everything's always changing, and if we don't keep up, we'll be left behind in the dust.  Peter Pan I think is different because he's the spirit of childhood.  In the stories of course he's real, but I'm still trying to figure out why he chose not to grow up.  He could have married Wendy.
Spiritual growing:
5.  In the Bible it says that becoming mature is a sign of growing up, and that innocence is like being a child, and that we should be both.  Becoming mature means to learn the difference between good and evil on the basics, and then deeper, and learning to make better decisions.  I know it sounds boring, but when I was trying to find wisdom years ago I thought it was as cool as searching for buried treasure.  There we go.  Wisdom is more precious than gold.  It's what makes us mature.
6.  You have more chance to help people.  I've always wanted to "save the world." lol Then I realized I could, one person at a time.  Listening helps a lot.
7.  Many decisions, many possibilities.  The Fox and the Hound is a good illustration of the process of growing up.  So sad too though... 

Nanowrimo!!!!!  Halloween!  I've realized Cinderella is sometimes associated with Halloween because of the pumpkin carriage (and it's important in episode 21 of Ouron High School Host Club, an anime, and really interestingly made into a symbol that shows up in the episodes after it too).  I'm going to be doing Nanowrimo if I can.  If you don't know what that is... basically it's an online, free thingy where you sign up and try to write 50,000 words in a month, specifically, the month of November, which is nearly upon us. (:
Hark how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, "throw cares away!"
Thanksgiving, Turkey!  Homemade pie!  I love autumn and winter.  They're like the climax of a typical year.  And then new life comes back at Spring.  Ya see?  Constant change.

So... what do you think about all this?  Are you doing Nanowrimo?  What's your story going to be about?  In another post I might say what mine will be.
And here's a REALLY pretty song to end with :)