Passing through puberty, into adulthood and now into middle age, I've wasted a lot of time lamenting the size of my hips, the gray in my hair, and the lines in my face.
The manner in which human beings tussle with one another over power, property and prestige is not much different in adulthood than it is in middle school and the process steps are the same even when the dispute is on an entirely different scale.
Mid-nineteenth-century Americans endured a high rate of infant mortality but expected that most individuals who reached young adulthood would survive at least into middle age.