Around the time that film cameras were still being bought, slightly before the digital camera revolution took hold, my brother Severino and I competed regarding the number of millimeters we owned.<\/p>\n
If my brother showed up with a camera whose zoom lens went from 75mm to 200mm, I would have to try to top that with a lens as wide as 74 and as long as 201mm. Well, cameras just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work that way. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy a lens of a specific size the way you would a skein of yarn or a bolt of cloth.<\/p>\n
With the ubiquity of digital cameras, people now seem content to brag about the number of megapixels their camera has, the way people tout horsepower, interest rates, gigabytes and implants.<\/p>\n
As long as humans have been around, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s always been a need to make comparisons. We have to be stronger, richer, smarter, wiser. One way is to attack youth, as if it were something to be avoided rather than a necessary step to maturity.<\/p>\n
In fact, the very concept of maturity is in itself puzzling.<\/p>\n
Let me explain:<\/p>\n
I was trying out a new TV channel, Turner Classic Movies, which shows films that had plots and opening and closing credits that don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t last for hours. As I watched two movies this week \u00e2\u20ac\u201d one of them was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Every Girl Should Be Married\u00e2\u20ac? \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I noticed a common thread: the supreme put-down was \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re acting like a child.\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
All right, then, what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the harm? Are children by definition obnoxious, immature, difficult to get along with? Now, before you answer that, I acknowledge there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a certain energy quotient that takes over hormonally crazed teens, a condition I learned about first hand, as a high school freshman, then as a teacher of high school freshmen and still later as a parent of freshmen (or, as my politically correct friends may say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153freshpersons\u00e2\u20ac?).<\/p>\n
But are children of an ilk that provokes a put-down on every mention of youth, as the movie did, when the protagonist said of his paramour, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a mere child. Why don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t you grow up?\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much like the case in which a kindergarten teacher sent Johnny home with a note to his parents: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Close observation shows that Johnny is immature.\u00e2\u20ac? The note was couched in a way that carried an implicit charge that such immaturity may result in expulsion.<\/p>\n
The parent then sent the following note back to the teacher: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If Johnny can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be immature in kindergarten, when can he be?\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
Notice the prevalence of age-based put-downs. I recall as a teen discussing what I believe was too simple a concept to be debating. My point was that a particular major league player, who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d started playing in the 1940s, was obviously much more experienced than someone who joined the pros in the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s.<\/p>\n
Well, the other person zoomed in only to the dates, insisting \u00e2\u20ac\u201d I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know why \u00e2\u20ac\u201d that the higher numbers (\u00e2\u20ac\u02dc50s) obviously denote more
\nexperience, in the same way older people have more experience than
\ncallow youth. He was saying, in effect that someone born in a higher-
\nnumbered year was older than a product of an earlier date.<\/p>\n
He had it backwards. But no matter. A neighborhood nurse who entered the grocery store at that moment, weighed in. A teen\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s arguing (not quarreling) with a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153more mature\u00e2\u20ac? person must have smacked of arrogance and insolence.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How old are you anyway?\u00e2\u20ac? she asked. I told her 14. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re
\njust a child. But at 14 you should be old enough to know you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re
\nwrong,\u00e2\u20ac? she said. The nursely put-down was inevitable. It was coming
\nno matter the logic of the discussion. Therefore, to her, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a
\ncertain answer key that only people of a certain vintage are heir to.If I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d told the nurse I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d just that moment left an orgy celebrating
\nmy centennial, her reply likely would have been, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You mean to tell me you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re that old and still haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t learned your math?\u00e2\u20ac?Well, that does it. If it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s right, it shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter who said it.<\/p>\n
But notice how it does matter. Notice how the pious and platitudinous
\npontifications of politicians become profound, even though lesser
\nmortals may have uttered the same words but lacked the advantage of a soapbox or bevy of press aides.<\/p>\n
In my own upbringing, I used to be amazed at how the more mature
\nadults were quick to bring in the heavy hitters during a difference
\nof opinion. First to be attacked was the youth, which to some older
\npeople was the same as immaturity. Hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t anybody on the planet ever known someone young and nevertheless mature, or an old person who lacked judgment? Does age automatically confer a degree of maturity and sagacity?<\/p>\n
Soon entering the discussion would be various appeals to authority,
\nin which the more mature person would say something like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I know
\nlots of people who played in the major leagues and they could prove
\nyou wrong.\u00e2\u20ac? or \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What does a kid like you know about baseball?\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
And if that failed, the sagacious adult would make it really
\npersonal: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll bet your Mom and Dad would be disappointed hearing
\nthat you don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the difference between young and old ballplayers.\u00e2\u20ac?<\/p>\n
Some people really swing wildly.<\/p>\n
As a mere child struggling in a world that didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t brook divergent
\npoints of view, I must have rattled nuns, priests, parents, older
\nsiblings and older others by constantly questioning things. Perhaps
\nthe act of questioning itself indicated lack of maturity on the part
\nof a mere child, the dictum that youths shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question adults
\nhaving been inbred in us.<\/p>\n
All of the above makes perfect sense to me. The obvious conclusion
\nought to be that childishness and immaturity are just fine, in their
\nown time.<\/p>\n
That said, I have more adult matters to pursue. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m eager to tell my
\nolder brother all about the camera I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting for Christmas. It has
\na lens that goes from 68mm to 212mm and has all kinds of megapixels and gigabytes. Much more than my brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Instamatic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Around the time that film cameras were still being bought, slightly before the digital camera revolution took hold, my brother Severino and I competed regarding the number of millimeters we owned. If my brother showed up with a camera whose zoom lens went from 75mm to 200mm, I would have to try to top that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rezio.net\/woa\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}