
UMIRINBRAH?
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Sacrifice. You get to pick your damn sacrifice. That is all. You do not get to not make one. You are sacrificial, whether you want to be or not.
This is the Peter Pan story, roughly speaking.
Peter Pan is this magical boy. Pan is the god of everything, roughly speaking. It is not an accident that he has the name Pan. He is the boy that will not grow up. He is magical.
That is because children are magical. They can be anything. They are nothing but potential.
Peter Pan does not want to give that up. Why? He got some adults around him, but the main adult is Captain Hook. Who the hell wants to grow up to be Captain Hook?
That is fine, except that he ends up king of lost boys, in Neverland. Neverland does not exist. Who the hell wants to be king of the lost boys?
He also sacrifices the possibility to have a real relationship with a woman. That is Wendy. She is kind of conservative, middle class, London dwelling girl. She wants to grow up, have kids and have a life. She accepts her mortality. She accepts her maturity.
Peter Pan has to content himself with Tinkerbell. She does not even exist. She is like the fairy of porn. She is the substitute for the real thing.
But the dichotomy that I am talking about is very tricky, because there is a sacrificial element in maturation.
You have to sacrifice the pluripotentiality of childhood for the actuality of a frame.
The question is: why would you do that? One reason is: it happens to you whether you do it or not. You can either choose your damn limitations, or you can let them take you unaware when you are 30. Or even worse, when you are 40. Then, that is not a happy day.
I see people like this, and I think it is more and more common in our culture. People can put off maturity without suffering an immediate penalty, but all that happens is the penalty accrues. Then, when it finally hits, it just wallops you.
When you are 25 you can be an idiot. It is no problem. Even when you are out in a job search, it is like “well, you don’t have any experience and you are kind of clueless, but you are young, so it is no problem”. That is what young people are like, but they are full of potential.
Now you are the same person at 30. People are not so thrilled about you at that point. It is like:
There is something that is even more complex than that, in some sense. The problem with being a child is that all you are is potential, and it is really low resolution. You could be anything, but you are not anything.
Then you go on and adopt an apprenticeship, roughly speaking. Then at least you become something. When you are something, that makes the world open up to you again.
If you are a really good plumber, then you end up being far more than a plumber. You end up being a good employer. I am not putting plumbers down, more power to plumbers, they have saved more lives than doctors. Hygiene. If you are a really good plumber, then you have some employees, you run a business, you train some other people, you enlarge their lives, you are a pillar of the community, you have your family.
Once you pass through that narrow training period, which narrows you, constricts you, and develops you at the same time, then you can come out of the other end with a bunch of new possibilities at hand.
Carl Jung talked about that. He talked that part of the proper path of development in the last half of life was to rediscover the child that you left behind as you were apprenticing. Then you get to be something, and regain that potential at the same time. Very smart. He was very smart. Very wise thing to know.
Sacrifice. You get to pick your damn sacrifice. That is all. You do not get to not make one. You are sacrificial whether you want to be or not. That is a good thing to know as well.
This is the Peter Pan story, roughly speaking.

Peter Pan is this magical boy. Pan is the god of everything, roughly speaking. It is not an accident that he has the name Pan. He is the boy that will not grow up. He is magical.
That is because children are magical. They can be anything. They are nothing but potential.
Peter Pan does not want to give that up. Why? He got some adults around him, but the main adult is Captain Hook. Who the hell wants to grow up to be Captain Hook?

- First of all you got a hook.
- Second, you are a tyrant.
- Third, you are chased by the dragon of chaos with a clock in his stomach. The crocodile, has already got a piece of you. That is what happens when you get older. Time has already got a piece of you. Eventually, it has got a taste for you. Eventually, it is going to eat you.
That is fine, except that he ends up king of lost boys, in Neverland. Neverland does not exist. Who the hell wants to be king of the lost boys?
He also sacrifices the possibility to have a real relationship with a woman. That is Wendy. She is kind of conservative, middle class, London dwelling girl. She wants to grow up, have kids and have a life. She accepts her mortality. She accepts her maturity.


Peter Pan has to content himself with Tinkerbell. She does not even exist. She is like the fairy of porn. She is the substitute for the real thing.
But the dichotomy that I am talking about is very tricky, because there is a sacrificial element in maturation.
You have to sacrifice the pluripotentiality of childhood for the actuality of a frame.
The question is: why would you do that? One reason is: it happens to you whether you do it or not. You can either choose your damn limitations, or you can let them take you unaware when you are 30. Or even worse, when you are 40. Then, that is not a happy day.
I see people like this, and I think it is more and more common in our culture. People can put off maturity without suffering an immediate penalty, but all that happens is the penalty accrues. Then, when it finally hits, it just wallops you.
When you are 25 you can be an idiot. It is no problem. Even when you are out in a job search, it is like “well, you don’t have any experience and you are kind of clueless, but you are young, so it is no problem”. That is what young people are like, but they are full of potential.
Now you are the same person at 30. People are not so thrilled about you at that point. It is like:
- “What the hell have you been doing for the last 10 years?”
- “Well, I am just as clueless as I was when I was 22.”
- “Yeah, but you are not 22, you are an old infant. That is an ugly thing, an old infant.”
There is something that is even more complex than that, in some sense. The problem with being a child is that all you are is potential, and it is really low resolution. You could be anything, but you are not anything.
Then you go on and adopt an apprenticeship, roughly speaking. Then at least you become something. When you are something, that makes the world open up to you again.
If you are a really good plumber, then you end up being far more than a plumber. You end up being a good employer. I am not putting plumbers down, more power to plumbers, they have saved more lives than doctors. Hygiene. If you are a really good plumber, then you have some employees, you run a business, you train some other people, you enlarge their lives, you are a pillar of the community, you have your family.
Once you pass through that narrow training period, which narrows you, constricts you, and develops you at the same time, then you can come out of the other end with a bunch of new possibilities at hand.
Carl Jung talked about that. He talked that part of the proper path of development in the last half of life was to rediscover the child that you left behind as you were apprenticing. Then you get to be something, and regain that potential at the same time. Very smart. He was very smart. Very wise thing to know.
Sacrifice. You get to pick your damn sacrifice. That is all. You do not get to not make one. You are sacrificial whether you want to be or not. That is a good thing to know as well.
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