When our son Kevin was four years old, he said to his mother one day, "Mommy, I don't want to grow up. I want to always be your little boy." If that were a permanent desire, it would be unhealthy.

After the Second World War, Gunther Grass wrote a novel which achieved best seller fame. He called it the Tin Drum and it was about a boy who decided at three years of age that he was never going to grow up.

That really is not unusual. Countless people make this decision or act as though they have a decision never to grow up. Growth is not on their primary agenda.

Though September is two-thirds through the year, we see it as a kind of new beginning. We've had our summer vacations. Children are returning to school, we are at a transition period of seasons. The Fall air will soon become colder. …