this american life

I just finished listening to a radio program Ira Glass has an amazing tone of knowing in his voice, he always has the right questions and it seems that for the most part he gets them answered...

Thank Nancy Updike for the great photo of Ira.

I have questions again; most of the unanswered. What does it mean to be an adult? Why do we have to act a certain way? When do we officially grow up. What if we don't? What if we do sometimes?
Our children grow up acting like a mixture of them and us and every thing that came before us. At some point they become the adult and we become the child. We pretend to be adults and they try to act like what they think an adult is.
I really would like to know what being an adult is; is it related to the accumulation of knowledge; or is it the accumulation of experience that shapes our reality? How does perception come into play? Can we use our perception as an excuse for our behavior? When do we really know what it means to be "adult"?

a·dult (ə-dŭlt', ăd'ŭlt)
n.

1. One who has attained maturity or legal age.
2. Biology. A fully grown, mature organism.

adj.

1. Fully developed and mature.
2. Relating to, intended for, or befitting adults: adult education.
3. Containing or dealing in explicitly sexual material; pornographic: adult movies; adult bookstores.

that is what Webster tells me but it says nothing about the me within the Self.

How many generations would it take to truly heal the afflictions that we carry with us that are not truly our affliction, but the ones we where handed by our parents parents parents, by society and the narrow world view we have from our TVs and our own back yard.

If life is truly experiential then we must experience to really live....