Timing

"Achilles: If you sailed any slower the war would be over."
"Odysseus: I'll miss the start as long as I'm here at the end."







I am a math guy. So here is what I think.

Wisdom = (time * experience)*(honesty)

Experience alone won't teach you. Time alone won't teach you. It takes both. And then it is multiplied by the fraction of honesty WITH OURSELVES, with the value of 1 being maximum honesty, and everything less being a fraction of 1.

The more dishonest we are with ourselves, the more we reduce the overall wisdom we gain from time and experience.

End of lesson 1.

What matters.

Where matters, also.

WHEN can make all the difference in the world. Ask any honest fly-fisherman. They will smile wryly and glibly describe to you how they watched the caddis coming off as thick as fog while they rigged up, trout literally ejecting themselves skyward after them. Then, by the time they achieved river's edge, silence.

Life imitates fishing, I always say.

"Things" happen for a reason, I hear a lot of folks wisefully state. Things include life changing events, I assume. Things include less profound events. But a lot of those "things" that I consider profound are only profound because of the timing and context of my experience at that particular moment.

The crossroads of experiences at every given moment can be so overwhleming and complex that I, for one, do not (can not, often by choice) even pay attention to it. Historically, in my little pathetic existence, only in the instance of the intersection of large magnitude "things" do I really take notice. I have aged I think wisely-- at least I am told I am a wise-ass a lot. I like to make myself feel good by allowing myself to take note of what appears to be less profound events more often, and then catalog those until later time for some good, old fashioned cogitation. Drawing lines between seemingly unrelated events at particular intersections of time. And what I have learned from this is that--holy shit--so much more exquisite relationship between seemingly non-related events, punctate throughout every day. The connections are staggering, from years ago to this moment.

I realized a long time ago the value of maintaining certain friendships that at the time did not seem viable. I did not truly understand the impact of time on everything.

Standing on the beach at the beginning of an Ironman, the impact of timing is clear.

Staring at yourself in the mirror in the morning, asking "where did I go wrong?" the impact isn't always so clear.

"I don't know how to separate the now from what used to be."

~Avett Brothers, "My Last Song to Jenny"