Growth Demands A Temporary Surrender Of Security.

Since Nobody Upstages Rudolph Giuliani, His Will Be A Broadway-class Show, Perhaps His Final Bravura Performance Before November 2000, When He Hopes To Be Turned Out Of The Mayor's Office By Virtue Of His Election To The United States Senate.

Growth Demands A Temporary Surrender Of Security. It May Mean A Giving Up Of Familiar But Limiting Patterns, Safe But Unrewarding Work, Values No Longer Believed In, Relationships That Have Lost Their Meaning. As Dostoevsky Put It, "taking A New Step, Uttering A New Word, Is What People Fear Most." The Real Fear Should Be Of The Opposite Course.

As We Reach Midlife In The Middle Thirties Or Early Forties, We Are Not Prepared For The Idea That Time Can Run Out On Us, Or For The Startling Truth That If We Don't Hurry To Pursue Our Own Definition Of A Meaningful Existence, Life Can Become A Repetition Of Trivial Maintenance Duties.

Would That There Were An Award For People Who Come To Understand The Concept Of Enough. Good Enough. Successful Enough. Thin Enough. Rich Enough. Socially Responsible Enough. When You Have Self-respect, You Have Enough.

The Work Of Adult Life Is Not Easy. As In Childhood, Each Step Presents Not Only New Tasks Of Development But Requires A Letting Go Of The Techniques That Worked Before. With Each Passage Some Magic Must Be Given Up, Some Cherished Illusion Of Safety And Comfortably Familiar Sense Of Self Must Be Cast Off, To Allow For The Greater Expansion Of Our Distinctiveness.