Something Understood

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Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life

Ethical and religious discussion that examines some of the larger questions of life, taking a spiritual theme and exploring it through music, prose and poetry

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Something Understood: Childish Things

Childish Things

BBC Radio 4 - Something Understood, Childish Things

Now past 40, Abdul-Rehman Malik asks what aspects of his youth he can carry with him.

Thinking about what it means to be grown up, journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik finds his thoughts turning to the question of what we can still carry with us from childhood and youth.

Turning 40, for many, is a time of anxiety and existential crisis. In thinking about what it means to be finally grown up, journalist Abdul-Rehman Malik finds his thoughts returning to the question of what it means to be young - and what of childhood and youth can we still carry with us. 

If, as it's said in the Islamic tradition, youth comes to a decisive end at the age of 40, then how can we still hold on to the energy, dynamism and even innocence of our younger years without being childish?

Reflecting on Saint Paul's advice to the church in Corinth to leave behind "childish things", Abdul-Rehman finds consolation in the words of C.S. Lewis who thinks that adults too concerned with adulthood are rather more immature than children. He also finds uneasy perspective in the encyclopaedic Hindu scripture Srimad Bhagavatam which tells us how, even in childhood, we carry the trauma of past lives and experience - shaping our adult lives.

Drawing on William Blake's Songs of Innocence, Sioux tribal wisdom, Zen paradoxes and the music of Herbie Hancock and Leonard Cohen, Abdul-Rehman finds that growing up well has as much to do with knowing what of childish things to keep as with what needs to be let go.

Presenter: Abdul-Rehman Malik
Producer: Jonathan Mayo
A TBI Media production for BBC Radio 4.

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