unADULTerated joy

Today's Quote from A Fancy Word for Simple:

I've heard that it's possible to grow up - I've just never met anyone who's actually done it. Without parents to defy, we break the rules we make for ourselves. We throw tantrums when things don't go our way, we whisper secrets with our best friends in the dark, we look for comfort where we can find it, and we hope - against all logic, against all experience. Like children, we never give up hope...
-Dr. Meredith Grey, Grey's Anatomy

I am a blend of child and grown-up, and I like the combination quite a lot. I can trace this balance back to at least age 12. I say this because I remember vividly saying to some adult, "Yes, I like playing with my doll. I enjoy it because I know in another few years, I'll be moving on to other things." That being said, Heidi (my doll of a thousand handmade outfits), is still in my tender keeping, and she elicits some wonderful memories for me, well into my teens. We all, regardless of age, need playtime ... need hope ... need starry-eyed innocents ... need others to care for us ... and need pure unADULTerated joy. But we also need to be adults on occasion, to do the difficult things that we can often set aside as children. We need to scrub the toilets and pay the bills and not ram the car in front of us, even though we have a desperate urge to teach that @$$ a lesson.