Letter

(written on 17 July. Edited for content)
 
Regarding our ongoing topic, I think you have some good points. Your point about man being composed of both natural and supernatural and only then being fully human sounds true. And the ruling of the lower nature by the higher is definitely true. I still think that there is something to what I am trying to say, I'm just not saying it correctly or fully or whathaveyou. I do agree that responsibility plays a huge role in the growing up process, and it is how the weight of responsibility is handled that determines the grown-up-ness (for lack of a better word) of a person. But it seems there has to be something more...Perhaps I am looking at growing up from an emotional level, when is someone emotionally grown-up? I know people who can handle various tasks and duties wonderfully, but are still not really grown-up. Even maturity is not a guarantee of being grown-up...it perplexes me. I will wonder on it some more.   
 
To throw in another topic for discussion, I've been thinking about ends and purposes. How necessary are ends? Let me clarify, how necessary are definite ends, that you can see and understand? Is there any merit or benefit in working toward an end you cannot see or understand in any way? Or working toward an end that you know to be impossible, at least at this time, if not forever? I keep trying to put order into my life, and I look at the things I do and I wonderwhat am I doing this for. I remember hearing the life of a saint, I think it was St. Philip Neri, who asked a young friend of his why he was doing something and what would happen next. The young man had a ready answer for the first few questions, but the saint kept asking "And then?" Eventually the young man answered that he supposed he would die and the saint said something to the extant of "Exactly! And where will you be having spent your entire life working toward material ends?" I look at what I do and ask myself "To what end am I doing this, where will this leave me?" I know I am to work toward God and His Will, and all my ends are to be in line with His...but its hard for this to transcend from the realm of my head to the realm of the heart...Isn't it odd theway you can know something in your head, know that it is something you ought todo or be doing, and it still be totally foreign to the way you think and act?