Superman and Pokemon in Advanced Middle Age

At 62, I'm still wearing the big red "S" around the house. I've made my nephew a Pikachu-themed self portrait for a birthday card, because Pokemon is still a part of his world as he turns half my age.

So, are we examples of the "death of the grown up?" My dad used to think so; he had me read a book with that title. But I've doubted that the adults of the 1920s or Frank Sinatra era were any more "grownup" in any important way. See Gerald and Sara Murphy: Muses of the Roaring Twenties (12/2007), Rat Pack Redux: Grown-ups ca. 1960 (09/2007), Updike's Couples: What's Adult in Adultery? (06/2016).

I've learned that the popular view of what constitutes growing up is actually an adolescent's idea. I digested ideas about true maturity in articles Richard Rohr's Falling Upward (07/2014) and Beyond Growing Up (06/2014), reflecting on Sacred Fire by Ronald Rolheiser.

Rather, I think the characters that appealed to us in our childhoods live with us in the way that mythological figures do. See my page Boomer Basement for links to many reflections on superheroes, witches, and other characters who populate a late-Boomer's memory.

Either way, it's a great excuse for me to throw in a couple of fun photos.