A Different View with Dave O’Connell

When you’re a child,” wrote the veteran novelist John Irving in his latest and what may well be his final opus, the Last Chairlift, “you think childhood is taking too long – you can’t wait to grow up.”

“One day, the growing up has happened; you missed it, and you’re trying to seize it after the fact.”

And that, in two sentences, is a fair summary of life – you spend the first half wishing it would move along with a little more pace and the second half wishing you could claw back time.

You can’t wait to be old enough to take off on your own, the set you own path, to start – as you see it – your own life.

And that’s as it should be; you start off in the nest dependant on your elders, but the sooner you can fly on your own, the better.

And then somewhere – one day – the pendulum has swing in the other direction and after years of trying to act older than you are, you find you are the oldest in the room and you wish it was any other way.

There’s not a thing wrong with being older of course, but this brings to mind the old analogy of the dog chasing the car – he didn’t know what to do when he caught up with it.

And so it is that you chase the first half of your life – being old enough to go to the shops on your own, to school on your own, to a teenage disco, to the pub and get served, to a nightclub, to buy a car, and on it goes.

Nobody tells you what to do anymore; you’re free to make your own choices and it’s great.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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