My Jotter

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Different cultures and religions hold varying views on the

transition from boyhood to manhood. In Jewish tradition,

the Bar Mitzvah at age thirteen marks the coming of age;

the threshold into adulthood. Catholics have their

Confirmation around a similar age. In other religions,

such as Islam, the onset of puberty leads to the child

taking on the same responsibilities as the adults around

him. And then there are legal indications of manhood.

You can drive, vote and fight for your country at eighteen;

smoke and drink at sixteen. I guess that allows two years

for the previously innocent child to numb his brain with

drugs before being dragged into the world of politics and/

or the military. It also means that the government receives

taxes on cigarettes and alcohol earlier, if I’m going to be

cynical about it. I do have a reputation for cynicism

amongst those who know me. They think I see

conspiracies and dark, convoluted plots everywhere I look.

They’re not totally wrong, if I’m honest.

But I’m in danger of skidding off on a tangent — that’s

something else I’m known for. They say I have a mild form

of ADHD, but personally I just think I have a butterfly

brain that likes to flutter from one thing to the next; back

and forth, whizzing around the myriad of topics at the

forefront of my mind at any one moment, their bright

colours and intoxicating scents each vying for my

attention.

I did it again, see? Let me tell you a little about me and

about why I’m writing this stuff down. My name’s Seth

Young and I grew up in a small town on the outskirts of

London. The name’s not important — I don’t want to give

the place a bad reputation or anything; god knows it’s had

its fair share of hardships and controversies over the years

and they don’t need me adding to their strife. As for my

name — my dad named me after the creator of Family

Guy, which turned out to be highly ironic as he upped and

left when I was three and a half.

So, I was telling you about manhood. That moment

when a boy becomes a man. I didn’t grow up religious and

I didn’t care what the law or those phoney politicians in

the House of Commons told me to think. I didn’t need any

of that to tell me when I became a man, because I knew