Legendary Woodsman

There are some people who prefer to be unemotional or detached, and they use a different word to describe this condition. They call it “maturity”.

I suppose what they’re saying is that emotions are childish and they have grown beyond expressing feelings. That they have reached some kind of Vulcan zen pinnacle of human potential. I believe it’s more of an excuse to callously live their life attempting to avoid the emotional consequences of their actions.

People feel sadness, jealousy, anger, envy… it might be petty and trivial but those emotions do exist. You may want to be friends with all your exes because friendship is a positive thing, but they may not be too thrilled that you have moved on so smoothly while they are struggling with the transition. I guess that’s why relationship magazines recommend blocking your exes on Facebook until some time has passed and everyone’s had a chance to move on.

It would also explain why drama follows the “mature” people around. By not taking other people’s feelings into consideration, the result is an emotional upheaval. And this doesn’t have to be in the forum of romantic relationships, it can be in platonic and professional relationships as well. Are your co-workers feeling taken for granted? Have you been insulting your best friend over-and-over in that joking way that you always do? I suppose you could just easily dismiss their feelings because they’re obviously being immature… but I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes down the road.

In fact, it’s more childish to take action without regard of how it’ll impact others. It’s the reason why you have to teach children to share and not pull each others’ hair. Maturity isn’t about turning off emotion; it’s about becoming more aware, introspectively and of others’ feelings.

-tony