Samuel Ullman.
It's funny how my eyes rove over pages of possible quotes and then they land on one, and then I am not sure why. But I linger and ponder, and decide I might as well have a go. That happened with this week's Thursday Thoughts around Life.
I think perhaps it has defined maturity in a way that I could understand, in particular when I see the opposite at play. Thinking, speaking and acting your feelings.
It makes sense to link maturity to expression of feelings because when I think about it - that's basically what it is - from toddlers to teenagers to grown-ups. We note immaturity with regard to the expression of feelings.
Doing so with the bounds of dignity can be hard for all of us to do at times when we are impassioned or enraged; but the mark of maturity is when we see people doing so. We might observe their tension, their quivering, their tightly coiled anger - yet we can appreciate how they express it - within the bounds of dignity.
Perhaps this truth is known to all; perhaps if I looked up a dictionary this would be the definition of maturity and I am late to the party; but it speaks a simple truth to me, and it helps me to think about both maturity and immaturity in these terms.
Anthony Gormley - Angel of the North (life-size maquette) National Gallery of Australia, Canberra.
what came to mind as I read this was "pre-emptive empathy" ... the ability to anticipate how someone else might feel if we do or say what's on our minds ... and how that can moderate the words we choose to say (or not)
ReplyDeleteThat's it Liz! The maturity to recognise how your feelings, when expressed, may impact others...
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