Comments on: I’m your apple-eating heathen http://www.shefallssoftly.com/2008/06/05/im-your-apple-eating-heathen/ lost in wonderland Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:43:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.2 by: Andy http://www.shefallssoftly.com/2008/06/05/im-your-apple-eating-heathen/#comment-224 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 19:00:47 +0000 http://www.shefallssoftly.com/2008/06/05/im-your-apple-eating-heathen/#comment-224 This is what causes the deadening of nerves, the loss of bright, simple clarity, the falling embrace of inevitability. Not the bad things, not the evil. Not the hard times or the loss of good times or the mistakes we make over and over. Those are all patterns we can incorporate into an eternal youth. No, the slide into age is caused by a growing realization: not that we were wrong and are right now, or less wrong... but that it didn't matter and doesn't. The angles change, the players change, the ability to reflect meaningfully (may) improve... but we look at "that time before," and "this time now," and sense that the only real difference is quantitative. If you can learn to love life, despite the fact that it is not ever going to provide you with shiny tokens in a reasonably rational manner, you win. This is what causes the deadening of nerves, the loss of bright, simple clarity, the falling embrace of inevitability. Not the bad things, not the evil. Not the hard times or the loss of good times or the mistakes we make over and over. Those are all patterns we can incorporate into an eternal youth.

No, the slide into age is caused by a growing realization: not that we were wrong and are right now, or less wrong… but that it didn’t matter and doesn’t. The angles change, the players change, the ability to reflect meaningfully (may) improve… but we look at “that time before,” and “this time now,” and sense that the only real difference is quantitative.

If you can learn to love life, despite the fact that it is not ever going to provide you with shiny tokens in a reasonably rational manner, you win.

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