The Best Of Us Shape And Are Shaped

Innocence should block the way to maturity, and maturity shouldn’t come at the expense of innocence.

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Twenty Years Less Malleable

An old friend and I were reminiscing about our time in high school. We mentioned a couple of teachers who had had such an impact on us that we wondered if they had existed or if we had made them up. When one of them didn’t show up after a few online searches, we began to doubt our sanity. The other one did appear, though: he currently writes for some newspapers on top of his lecturing. I even found out that he imparts short courses on philosophy and history that are open to anyone. I am tempted to join his next one. A part of me knows the impact cannot even resemble what I felt as a teenager. It doesn’t matter if he is twenty years better as a teacher — I am probably twenty years less malleable as a learner.

A–dull–ts

Just now, before sitting to write, my partner suggested my article should be about how it is much harder to find people who change us once we are adults. Our shapes are more defined, so there is less for anyone — however proficient they may be in the art of impacting others — to work with. She is right, of course. It got me thinking about how much my writing still comes from those critical years in…