Parenting & Family Quote by Dag Hammarskjold

Dag Hammarskjold links maturity to a recovered childlike state: unselfconscious joy, a clear-hearted trust that one belongs with others. The scene is ordinary and profound: children absorbed in a game, not calculating status or guarding themselves, simply acting together. Maturity, then, is not grim seriousness, but the capacity to participate with a transparent spirit, free from the clouds of suspicion, vanity, and fear that often settle on adults.

The phrase among other things matters. He is not reducing adulthood to cheerfulness; he is identifying one distinguishing mark. True maturity includes judgment, responsibility, and resilience, yet it also returns to a simple, shared happiness that does not need to be proved. The child takes unity for granted. That confidence is not arrogance; it is a lived assumption of belonging. For adults, this is hard-won. After disillusionment and conflict, the mature person achieves a second innocence: the ability to trust again, not because nothing can go wrong, but because the self is integrated enough to meet others without defensiveness.

Hammarskjold knew the weight of history. As UN Secretary-General in the tense mid-century, he sought to hold nations in conversation when mistrust was the default. His spiritual reflections in Markings aim at inner freedom: acting from a center that is quiet, disciplined, and open. The image of playmates offers an ethic of cooperation. Games have rules and stakes, yet the point is shared activity. Diplomacy, leadership, and ordinary relationships flourish when people enter the arena assuming community rather than enmity.

Unclouded happiness is not naivete; it is clarity without rancor. It resists the pose that calls cynicism maturity. To be grown up, in this vision, is to have the courage to be light, to meet others with a readiness to join rather than to dominate. When that spirit prevails, unity is not argued but enacted, and the work of living together becomes, again, a form of play.