Words of Others | The Lies of Youth

This is from Stephen King’s The Gunslinger, spoken by a boy traveling with the title character. The boy knows he is fated to die to advance the gunslinger’s quest, though it is breaking the gunslinger’s heart. The boy asks about the gunslinger’s coming of age (the end of which prompted last Friday’s post):

I always wondered about growing up. I bet it’s mostly lies.

I thought this was the most poignant line of the book. Growing up does turn out to be a lie for some people, and for others it is the fulfillment of a dream. Being an adult has been pretty good for me, but I wonder how many people feel that they were lied to. It reminded me of a line from Bruce Springsteen’s song “The River”:

Is a dream a lie if it don’t come true, or is it something worse?