Chapter 202

True adulthood,” Toni Morrison told an orchard of human saplings in her  2004 Wellesley College commencement address , “is a difficult beauty, an intensely hard won glory, which commercial forces and cultural vapidity should not be permitted to deprive you of.” 

Notice the commercial forces and cultural vapidity, Those are the forces that work against adulthood. Going out and buying something when you hit a tough spot in life is being an American, not being an adult. Purchasing more stuff to keep up with the Jones, to be seen as stylish and vogue and accomplished is being a Consumer not being an adult. Purchasing what you need and no more, spending less than you make, saving and investing, those would be the habits and decisions of an adult not the commercial consumerist forces that drive our economies. Those forces would want you to spend more than you make, be an impulse buyer, make financial decisions based on style fashion or image more than needs or practicalities.

And most if not all of that style fashion and image stuff is directly tied to vapidity of the standard culture, offering you no real challenge at all. There is no challenge in using your credit card to purchase more than you need for appearances sake, or because something is broken inside of you. There is no challenge in being like everyone else in your school or on your street. The challenge is in being yourself, being comfortable in your own skin with your own thoughts. The challenge is being a person who is changing the world, while the culture around you thinking only about themselves.