Growth?

Remember the unjust horrors of childhood after five when school brought you new stories and fun games served on a tray of reality?

The fairy tale belief that you were Clara from the Nutcracker, Wonder Woman, Baryshnikov and Superman, all wiped out by the presence of other beauties and beasts?

Former routines as comedians and comediennes failed among the harsh audiences of peer groups?

Stepping down as the princess or prince of the universe was a jolting experience that no one seemed to notice, not even you, except in your innermost heart.

It was:

Accepted!

The world was no longer your oyster.

There were standards of beauty so thin and tests of agility so brutal that they immediately began to separate the in crowd, the leaders, the athletes, the cool kids, from others who lacked things they had no control over.

And if anyone failed to notice these things there was always someone eager to point them out.

Endowments given by benefactors ignorant of the purpose of parenting to children who presented with a need to hurt others in order to feel better than.

I thought our generation would do better, but it takes such a small amount of darkness to corrupt a whole new world.