Skiwi

Quote

from the Epilogue in "Doctor on Everest" -- Kenneth Kamler

All things in nature must change if they are to retain their vitality. Ideas can live forever, but little boys grow up.
They must entrust their ideas to the adults they are to become. What if I were to be confronted by the little boy I was?

He would ask me, "What have you done with my life? Did you fulfill the trust I gave you?"

The answer must, of necessity, fall short of reality. An adult has to navigate through the dizzying experiences of life and can't take the straight route the naive child imagines.

But was the child's intensity and direction blunted and deflected by real obstacles or did the adult just get lost in the details along the way - always moving but going nowhere?

I would answer the little boy, "I held your trust tightly as I was propelled into the world, buffeted and bombarded by forces outside my control. Had I remained unchanged throughout, it would mean life had no impact on me. What value would it have had then? Why live it? I changed - but I steered as close as I could to the life you imagined for me."

In our final accounting, I believe the boy would be satisfied with the man he has become.

The Law of Unintended Consequences

You can't change just one thing

In a complex system it is not always possible to predict what the consequences of any change will be. Small changes can cause large effects, while huge changes may leave the system pretty much the way it was.

The Fellowhip of the Ring

So do I, said Gandalf, and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.