Maturity is usually associated with physiological change and age. The term is borrowed by analogy to describe psychological and emotional change that accompanies age, as if growing old ushers in the full ripening of psychological depth and breadth. Unfortunately, not so simple. Psychological maturity bears some relation to physiological maturity for body/mind networks/systems are elaborated and pruned over time. depending upon exercise and experience. Because individuals differ by culture, health, capacity, opportunity, and myriad other ways, networks are differentially elaborated and some richer and more attuned than others. “Attuned “is adaptively fit to situations or demands). Thus, an individual may be highly mature in one area, such as finance, law, or medicine and immature in another, such as culture, personal relationships, or self-knowledge.
Since mental capacity, just as physiological capacity, is subject to limits, a dominant mental network not infrequently serves as an organizer for less practiced areas of knowledge. For example, lawyers and judges see human relations as a matter of contract; financial advisors, financial resources; medical practitioners, “procedures” for symptoms. Once established, a dominant mental network may come to rule all domains of life.
However, life does not follow restricted rules, fixed expectations, or bounded rules. Life involves multiple systems with paradoxical relations. A rule that applies within one system may not apply within another. For example, the use of standard logic may aggravate interpersonal misunderstanding; the pursuit of security may diminish creativity, and the treatment of symptoms cause deleterious side effects.
The world and life are complex. Traditional culture provided guidance for choice and conduct in occupation, marriage, parenting, family relations, and life’s passing. The manners, conduct, and rituals of traditional culture provided a shared playbook for understanding and navigation in life. Religion and shared beliefs gave coherence to the meaning and path of life. Western, particularly US, secular society has abrogated traditional cultural roles and expectations. In place of traditional guidance, Americans are counseled to turn to science and expertise The principal sources of such information are news broadcasts and the internet. Science is often reported by non-scientists, and findings are often partial or controversial. On the internet and in life, expertise is fraught with opinion. So, Americans are often confused and bewildered. No wonder then that so many Americans are prone to absolutism unable to engage rational discourse beyond of a narrow set of beliefs. No wonder so many Americans find affirmation in booze and drugs. In striking contrast to earlier generations and traditional cultures, Americans, particularly the young, row their boat alone –all the worse when the seas are rough.
Cultural confusion has been amplified by academic, educational, political, and media reframing of gender identity, the meaning of sexual relations, the role of merit in hiring and advancement, the ubiquitous use of “privilege” and its connotations. Youth is particularly impacted. If science, expertise, and the internet fail to provide reliable answers and guidance, where to turn? How to separate signal from noise? Where is a reliable ground, relation to life, and purpose?
The first step is the most difficult. The first step is to admit bewilderment and to take on humility before the unknown. The second step is to examine what one knows or thinks one knows and examine its roots in personal history and reality. This includes one’s senses, emotions, feelings, circumstances, and contexts. Through this process one comes to “know thyself”. One comes to experience to the knower who is the self. Experience and knowledge are aggregated and anchored. Inconsistencies are resolved. New coherences are discovered. Blind spots are brought to light. The self grows in substance and will is enlivened. This process is always individual. Everyone differs genetically and by virtue of age, experience, and upbringing. The common and cohort culture bathes the individual, and persons are inherently blind to its influence unless graced by an alternative lens for understanding and evaluation.
Maturity is the knower established through reflective appraisal of life experience. The knower coalesces body, mind, and spirit with understanding of limitation and strength. Maturity, so defined, can exist at any age, but its richness depends upon the breadth and depth of experience of the knower. The benefit of maturity is to know thyself, to know what is, to be truly present, to know one’s place and role in life. The benefit of maturity is to know humility and sense awe before the real, to know and understand others for who they are, to be genuine, to be free of doubt, to be free.
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