Are Grown-ups Obsolete?

I just read a book review of "The Death of the Grown-Up" today.

Review

I can't actually comment on the book since I haven't read it. But I can spout out my opinion on that general topic cause hey that's what blogs are for.

Are people actually getting less mature? Here I'll take a stab at listing some qualities of a "mature" person, in no particular order.

1. Makes decisions based on what is better in the long-term, not the short term.
2. Takes responsibility for their own actions.
3. Is not overly selfish.

I don't think that "stays in the same job for 25 years" or "has kids by age 27" or "doesn't watch cartoons" belong on such a list. What I'm trying to say here is that I don't think that people in my generation are any less mature. (And by extension that our baby-boomer parents did at least an adequate job of raising us). I do think that we do a lot of things differently. Many of us move from job to job, and don't start families until much later. And yes, there are plenty of us who are a little spoiled and live at home rent-free while buying nice cars or expensive flat-screens.

But many of my peers are very conscientious savers, and have learned at a young age the pitfalls of consumer debt. And as far as starting a family, a lot of us are taking our time to learn more about ourselves, and perhaps get some adventure-taking out of our systems before deciding to settle down. I actually have really high hopes for the marriage success rate of my generation. I believe that we put quite a lot of thought into getting married, and since we don't have to, we only do it if we really want it and are ready.

You can always find examples on both sides. When we were kids, my sister had a friend who was at a sleepover, and she didn't like what they were having for dinner so she called her mom and asked for McDonald's. And yes, the mom actually brought it over!!! But my 16 year old sister just went on a volunteer mission with her church to help beautify run-down areas of St. Louis. And I recently met a guy who was younger than me (I think 24 or 25) who had started a non-profit organization to help bring AIDS education to India.

So if being a grown-up means being the dad on the Wonder Years, then I don't think we need them anymore. We've got grown-up 2.0 now. Grown-up 2.0 is a kind, caring, mature person who lives in an age of many opportunities, and spends time exploring them. Yes, my contemporaries and I might 'waste' a lot of time blogging, youtube-ing, and social networking, but hey people in the 40's wasted a lot of time swing dancing. So there!

Marrakech

There are different types of traveling. There's the "ooh a foreign department store" kind of traveling. This is what I did in Dublin. (Yeah, I kicked the ass out of Marks & Spencer). Then there's the "what the F is going on?" kind of traveling. Marrakech is more like that second kind. Granted there are more "hardcore" places than Morocco, but Marrakech is definitely a different level of foreign than Dublin.

Andy and I got to the airport and looked for a cab. We had a little trouble spotting them at first, because they were parked. I guess that makes sense... why waste gas until you've got a paying customer? BTW that reminds me of this tv show I saw about truckers. Did you know that truckers idle their engines a lot, because they sometimes spend the night in their trucks and they want to listen to the radio, have the a.c. on, etc. It makes sense, I'd just never thought about it. Lots and lots of gas goes to that purpose.

Anyway, we showed a cab driver the address of our guest house, and he told us it'd be 150 dirhams. It was late and we were feeling quite out of our element, so we didn't argue. We later found out that the going rate from Bab Doukkala (where we were staying) to the airport is about 60 dirhams.

Our cab driver Mohammad was very nice although spoke extremely little English. So when he dumped us off at a dark alley, we didn't feel super confident that we'd find out hotel. Luckily a nice guy helped us find it.

This picture is Andy in front of our hotel during the day. Imagine finding this place at night. It's a labyrinth in there.

Our very nice host Hassan welcomed us and poured us some mint tea. He served the tea hot, even though it was about 100 degrees outside. For some reason the tea was still really refreshing.

Here's me in the courtyard of our beautiful guest house. It was really unlike anything we'd seen. For the first time since I've known him, Andy was stunned into silence.

Hassan told us to go explore the square. We got down there around 11pm, and it was hopping! There were bright lights, and smoke filled the air from all the food vendors. Andy and I got talked into some cous cous. It was fairly bland, but decent enough. The veggies with it were nice. As I stared at everything and tried not to get run over by horses, motor scooters, cars, or pedestrians, it was hard to believe that back in Seattle at that very moment, people were sitting in front of their computers doing work.

Dublin - where EVERY pub is an Irish pub

I just got back from 3 weeks of traveling. My first stop was Dublin. My British friend Andy and I went there to look for leprechauns, Bono, and Gerry Adams. We did not find any of those things. However, I bought a cute hat, and we did a tour of the Guinness factory. And, we saw a few funny things.

One day, Andy and I were getting on the bus and a large group of Italian summer school students were crowding onto the bus. The bus driver was telling everyone to move back and he looked fairly exasperated. So when we got on the bus, Andy (being British) said, "Are you happy in your work?" The bus driver smiled. "Actually, I am," he said. "A full bus is a happy bus." (This sounds super funny when spoken with an Irish accent.)

At the Guinness factory, there is a bar on the top (5th?) story, called the Ghost Bar. This is where everyone mingles and enjoys their "free" Guinness at the end of the tour. I say "free" because the tour itself costs about 14 euro. But it's a fairly rad tour - there's a really nice exhibit showing the advertising campaigns Guinness has had throughout history. Anyway, while Andy and I were daintily sipping our Guinnesses in the Ghost Bar, an employee came on the microphone to tell us that a man wanted to propose to his girlfriend. Andy, who happens to be going through a divorce, yelled "don't do it!" I smacked him. Hopefully the lovesick beer drinkers did not hear him. The man proposed, and she said yes! Awwwww, true love. You know, I like to consider myself fairly low maintenance, and I certainly drank my fair share of malt liquor in undergrad. However, I think getting proposed to in a beer factory would be a little bit of a let down.






Me shopping in Dublin, sporting my cool Irish hat! I fit right in.



Me drinking a Guinness, again blending in seamlessly.



Me and Molly Malone, perhaps looking a bit touristy here. :)