time and self perspective

“We drift thru life with one eye absently on a rear view mirror. Somewhere along about 40 we become aware someone is tailing us.”

“Who is it?  The angel of death?”

“No. It’s us as we might have been.” – Robert Littell

Young people won’t understand this quote. This is something you just cannot understand until you have actually experienced it. I know for a fact I was fairly sure up until I was 40 or so I was destined to be on the front cover of Time magazine some day. Anyway. It didn’t happen (sigh).time

Regardless. I have written a number of times that I am not a big regret guy. And to me this quote isn’t about regrets. It is simply about truth. And “us as we might have been” may have been a better “us” or it could be a lesser “us” and that is the beauty of this quote. Time gives us perspective on what we have done and who we have become.

Some good.

Some bad.

100% sure to make you think.

Oh. The other reason I like this is the twist. It would have been so easy to play off of Virgil’s “death whispers in my ear” but instead it dips deeper into what lies within you.

It is difficult to envision what you will ‘be.’ Sure. You can envision what you want and things you believe you would like to do, and be, but Life has a nasty habit of having it’s own plan now and then that … well … you didn’t plan for when you were envisioning shit.

Anyway.

Here is a reality of life.

99.9% of us don’t end up what we thought we were going to be.

99.9% of us end up somewhere that ain’t too bad.

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Written by Bruce