Living Wild and Crazy

Comment:

The beauty of your books is that you tell the honest truth of a normal girl living her normal life.  Basically, it seems to me that “you live young while you’re young, live old while you’re old.”  Youth is the only chance you have to live out your wild and crazy adventures, not because of finances or  not being tied down.  It’s because your priorities and values change as you get older.  You no longer look for life to be an ever-changing crazy adventure, you look for “simple but good.”  That’s a beautiful thing.  But all change is tinted with the sadness of leaving something behind.

Phyllis replied:

Hmmm.  Yes and no to the idea of change.  Yes, when you’re growing up, every year you’re in a different class at school, different teachers, learning new things.  You expect change.  If you get a job or go to college, you may work different hours, live in new cities, constantly meet new people.  But you can actually get tired of change; change can get “old.”  You may get tired of living alone; of meeting friends each night at the usual bar scene; may get tired of serial dating—of living out of a suitcase with so much travel.  And people who have raised families and put their kids through college may be ready for living a little crazy for awhile–traveling to places they’d always wanted to go, starting a new business, moving to a new location.  The secret, I think, is not to expect always to be “happy,” because “happiness” is reserved for big things–awards or birth of a child, or falling in love or meeting an old friend.  What you hope for is contentment.  Nobody can feel extreme emotion all the time, so reserve “happiness” for the really special things that happen and “contentment” for your day-to-day life.  And yes, change is often tinted with sadness–leaving something behind–but it’s hard to go around “sad” all the time too.