Starlets and Paul...

“When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things” – 1 Corinthians 13:11.

“And then she told him how he had been in the nursery long enough, and must go out now and see the world, if he intended ever to be a man” – Water Babies.

Kingsley echoes the sentiments of St. Paul in the selected passage. Tom must mature in order to experience the whole of the world. Tom has reached the stage when he must put away childish things in order to progress to the next level of development. His journey is only able to begin once he realises that there is nothing to fear. Each progression and development is supposed to happen and there are tools that are to be used by Tom should he ever need them.

Kingsley continues, “And then she told him how many fine things there were to be seen in the world, and what an odd, curious, pleasant, orderly, respectable, well-managed, and, on the whole, successful sort of place it was, if people would only be tolerably brave and honest and good in it” (157). The fairy allays Tom’s fears about his venturing from the nursery comforting him by telling him how good the world was and that if everyone would be honest and good.

In both quotations it becomes clear that there are stages in life and one must leave one stage before entering another. There is not the ability to have the “best of both worlds.” Both for Tom and St. Paul there exists the need to evolve and shed those things that would hinder them. In other words, childhood and adulthood are mutually exclusive.

In today’s society there is a tendency to want the best of both worlds. Starlets revel in the fact that their money allows them to do whatever they please; forgetting that with wealth and freedom come responsibilities. For example, the idea that it is all right to drink and drive. The mentality of these starlets says, “I’m not too drunk. I can drive.” Thinking only of themselves they forget that their actions have consequences they cannot see. Thousands of young children look up to these girls hanging off every word and action they say and do. Leaving behind childish things and taking responsibility for what you do is progressing and making the world the place the fairy speaks of.