Growing Up

Sometimes I think life is too much for the melancholy.  Or maybe growing up just presents too many transitions and changes--so much to overwhelm.  And all of a sudden, if anything is to be done, you have to do it.  If you want a house, you need to make money ... and it seems like so many things come down to needing money.

“Poverty at once lays bare material life and renders it hideous; and hence come indescribable soarings toward the ideal life ... The poor young man has to work for his bread, and when he has eaten, he has only reverie left him.  He goes to the free spectacle which God gives; he looks at the sky, space, the stars, the flowers, the children, the humanity in which he is suffering, and the creation in which he radiates.  He looks so much at humanity that he sees the soul, and so much at creation that he sees God.  He dreams, and feels himself great; he dreams again, and feels himself tender.  From the egotism of the man who suffers, he passes to the compassion of the man who contemplates, and an admirable feeling is aroused in him,—forgetfulness of self, and pity for all … And then, each morning he goes to earn his livelihood, and while his hands earn bread, his spine gains pride, and his brain ideas … He is firm, serene, gentle, peaceful, attentive, serious, satisfied with a little, and benevolent; and he blesses God for having given him two riches which rich men often want,—labor which makes him free, and thought that renders him worthy of being free.”


-- Les Miserables, Volume 3, Book V, Chapter III: Marius Grown Up

Not that I live in poverty, or ever have.  But, goodness, it seems impossible to get ahead in life.  How do you ever move beyond living from paycheck to paycheck?  And is there dignity in living from paycheck to paycheck?  Yes, I think there is, but it is also difficult not to get caught up in the limitations or boundaries of living within a budget.  It seems to be a universal struggle that transcends time and space, as Marius was just as deeply affected by the complication that money presents to moving on in life.  How can you make your dreams and hopes real if they just depend on money?

Thank goodness they don't.