At some point, it is inevitable that you find yourself
and it is up to you to determine whether that moment,
that encounter will be about gladness or about sorrow.

Miguel de Unamuno

XLIII

Miguel made it sound like
you find yourself once.

Not so, I think.
A recent news item was about new neurons forming in elderly brains.
Another about how the brain isn't complete until late teens, early twenties.
The teenage years are stormy in part because all the circuits aren't wired yet.

In fact isn't teen years about defining self?
Trying different selves on and seeing how the world reacts to them.
How self reacts to itself, and to the mix of social messages coming in.

There was a news interview with a senior Japanese man -
102 years old.
About his exercise routine.
And about him starting to learn Chinese at 95,
and now in China educating youngsters
in his fluent Chinese.

Sometimes, I think, one finds oneself
and the encounter isn't about gladness or sorrow.
It is about wonder,
expectation.

Who will my next self be?
What is kept, what is shed?
What will I create? Discover?
Miguel is probably mistranslated.
Even his comment implies that creation -
that discovery -
the active choices we make
become
how we interpret ourselves
later
with either gladness
or with sorrow.

If the encounter is about sorrow,
what changes will help
make
the next encounter
one of gladness?