The Lost Blog post/essay/article/etc.

December 16, 2008 12:53 PM

Seeking a wonderful essay I saw online once about being age-appropriate -- hoping the green can help me?

I read a wonderful essay or blog post or the like just once and am wishing to God I bookmarked it, as it's been eluding me on Google.

It was about being "age appropriate", for lack of a better word -- about not just accepting, but EMBRACING the fact that different ages let you get away with different things -- i.e., little kids can get away with trying to read under the covers with flashlights, or playing hopscotch, but grownups can get away with staying up late; people in their 20's can get away with partying until the wee hours of the morning, but seniors can get away with other pursuits, etc. By the same token, there are things that kids can get away with that adults can't, etc. The thrust of this all was to go ahead and embrace the kinds of things that your specific age let you get away with, at each stage, because that was the whole point.

Does anyone remember seeing ANYTHING like this anywhere? I'd love to read it again, and I've been looking for this for some months now.

posted by EmpressCallipygos to computers & internet (6 comments total)

This?
posted by Tobu at 1:53 PM on December 16, 2008

Not that, Tobu -- this was more of an all-embracing, "if you're a kid, rather than trying to grow up to fast, instead, get really INTO making mud pies and catching bugs and making armpit farts to drive your Mom crazy because you can get away with that as a kid. But by the same token, if you're not a kid any more, go all-out and embrace the fact that now you can decide to eat whatever you want and stay up late and go to loud rock concerts and hang out at biker bars and do other grown-up things. because that's the whole point, that you embrace the age you are."
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:03 PM on December 16, 2008

Might it have been in this Metafilter thread?
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 2:22 PM on December 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Nothing there -- although ParasiteUnseen's comment comes closest to the tone. This was definitely something I saw off Mefi, and before I joined to boot.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 2:29 PM on December 16, 2008

Might you be thinking of Phillip Pullman's comments about "age banding"?
posted by Coaticass at 2:39 PM on December 16, 2008

That's not it either, Coaticass -- that's more of a scholarly treatise, where what I saw definitely was a rah-rah "so, if you're a kid, TAKE ADVANTAGE of that and eat too much Halloween Candy and play tag and blah blah blah, and when you are an adult, ENJOY the fact that you can drink malt scotch or go on road trips or see porn and blah blah blah".

Arg -- I'm sorry this is so tough!
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:39 AM on December 18, 2008