Brian’s Reflection: Monday, October 22, 2007


The great secret that all old people share is that you
really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years.
Your body changes, but you don't change at all.
And that, of course, causes great confusion.

- Doris Lessing, author, winner of the 2007
Nobel Prize for Literature, born on this
day, 1919 (born in Persia)


Well, what do the “old people” think?? Is Doris correct?

I’ve thought about what she said. In essence, personally, I believe she is right. My body is collapsing - but my inner sense of self is, on one level, the same. I have the same delight in the beauty of the World, the same appreciation for fun, the same wonder in the universe, people, myself, many many things. Maybe enhanced some, but it’s an ebb and flow. The freshness is still there, sometimes sharpened a bit, sometimes softened.

Where I might disagree is this: I’d like to think that my inner spirit has grown. That I’ve learned some things, enhanced some learnings, maybe gotten a little better at living out the learnings. But, actually, I’ve known those things for a long time. Just needed to activate them. And I go up and down.

So, I guess I haven’t really changed much.

A pleasant indication of Eternity perhaps!

Brian+