Do Not Mistake A Child For His

These Same Experiences Make Of The Sequence Of Life Cycles A Generational Cycle, Irrevocably Binding Each Generation To Those That Gave It Life And To Those For Whose Life It Is Responsible. Thus, Reconciling Lifelong Generativity And Stagnation Involves The Elder In A Review Of His Or Her Own Years Of Active Responsibility For Nurturing The Next Generations, And Also In An Integration Of Earlier-life Experiences Of Caring And Of Self-concern In Relation To Previous Generations.

Children Cannot Be Fooled By Empty Praise And Condescending Encouragement. They May Have To Accept Artificial Bolstering Of Their Self-esteem In Lieu Of Something Better, But What I Call Their Accruing Ego Identity Gains Real Strength Only From Wholehearted And Consistent Recognition Of Real Accomplishment, That Is, Achievement That Has Meaning In Their Culture.

If One Sees The Personality Not As An Apparatus That Is Essentially Constructed By The Time Childhood Is Over, But As Always In Its Essence Developing, Then Life At 25 Or 30 Or At The Gateway To Middle Age Will Stimulate Its Own Intrigue, Surprise, And Exhilaration Of Discovery.

There Is In Every Child At Every Stage A New Miracle Of Vigorous Unfolding.

Personality, Too, Is Destiny.