wanting
Although we always want things, childhood is the time when we are most insistent."Want, want, want" cries the child as he/she points at an ice cream or a balloon and, in order to avert wailing and tears, the child is pretty likely to get the object of his/her desire. This does not work when you are a 23 year old woman standing in Tangs pointing at a Benefit counter. (Ooh...)
When denied the ice cream which they want, a child may sulk or holler but (like i did when i was a child with asthma) they will also make a promise with themselves: "When i grow up, I'm going to eat ice cream every day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm not going to eat horrid vegetables, i'll eat tubs and tubs and tubs of ice cream instead". It's when we grow up that the thought of an 'ice cream only' diet don't sound that appealing anymore. We bound our wishes with realities, in this case the realities of nutrition, body shape and balanced eating.
Perhaps we also lose the singlemindedness of our childhood: for a brief moment, the ice cream is the most important thing to have in the world and we strain in our efforts to get it. After the denial of gratification, and the tantrum it brings, however, the desire has passed and we focus on something else, this time needing the new item with the same blaze of intensity. Adulthood brings with it an ability to rationalise away snap decisions and impulses, and to moderate our insatiable appetite.
When denied the ice cream which they want, a child may sulk or holler but (like i did when i was a child with asthma) they will also make a promise with themselves: "When i grow up, I'm going to eat ice cream every day, for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I'm not going to eat horrid vegetables, i'll eat tubs and tubs and tubs of ice cream instead". It's when we grow up that the thought of an 'ice cream only' diet don't sound that appealing anymore. We bound our wishes with realities, in this case the realities of nutrition, body shape and balanced eating.
Perhaps we also lose the singlemindedness of our childhood: for a brief moment, the ice cream is the most important thing to have in the world and we strain in our efforts to get it. After the denial of gratification, and the tantrum it brings, however, the desire has passed and we focus on something else, this time needing the new item with the same blaze of intensity. Adulthood brings with it an ability to rationalise away snap decisions and impulses, and to moderate our insatiable appetite.
Which is, though, a little bit of a shame, but is better than living like a child without boundaries, without self-control and without consequence.
