CHANCE
It is not cowardice but courage to acknowledge the superior role <that> chance plays in steering the course of life and at the same time to take responsibility for the margin of difference our personal choices do make within the parameters of chance." p.179
LASTS (change, the illusion of permanence)
"One of the greatest of our betrayals of our illusion of permanence, one of the sharpest daggers of loss, is the retroactive recognition of lasts- the last time you sat across from a person you now know you will never see again, the last touch of a hand, the last carefree laugh in intimacy--lasts the finality of which we can never comprehend in the moment, lasts we experience with sundering shock in hindsight." p 184
CHANGE-
"To be a revolutionary(for change) is to be in possession of an imagination capable of leaping across the frontier of the familiar to envision a new order in which what is gained eclipses the ill-serving c0mforts of what is lost." p 201
CHANGE-
"What makes a person "the same" person across life's tectonic upheavals of circumstance and character? Amid the chaos and decay toward which the universe inclines, we grasp for stability and permanence by trying to carve out a solid sense of self in our blink of existence. But there is no solidity. Every quark of every atom of every cell in your body had been replaced since the time of your first conscious memory, your first word, your first kiss. In the act of living, you come to dream different dreams, value different values, love different loves. In a sense your are reborn with each new experience." p206
CHANGE/LOVEs-
"Are we to despair or rejoice over the fact that even the greatest loves exist only "for a time"? The time scales are elastic, contracting and expanding with the depth and magnitude of each love, but they are always finite-- like books, like lives, like the universe itself. The triumph of love is in the courage and integrity with which we inhabit the transcendent transience that binds two people for the time it binds them, before letting go with equal courage and integrity." p 200
SCAFFOLDING-
"Whether or not I remember accurately or sufficient enough the experiences as a child, for certain the emergent personality appeared to handle the circumstances of living." p.?