The latest entry in Bigger on the Inside: Dr. Who - "We all change"

“We all change. When you think about it, we’re all different, all through our lives. And that’s Ok, that’s good. You’ve got to keep moving. So long as you remember all the people you used to be.” How powerful it is to look back, to see who I once was, to appropriately grieve for the loss of that person. I was once the 3-year-old who bumped his shin on the trundle bed in my bedroom. I once took the training wheels off of my bicycle and didn't re-secure the back wheel. I remember well the 15-year-old who cried when my grandfather died. I was the young father who held my beautiful baby daughter in my hand. I have been so many selves, all of which still live in me. We each have former lives, an infinite number of previous incarnations, all real, and now only alive as memories. How close to the surface of our consciences these previous selves live can change as well, as triggers and reminders abound, sometimes too often. and, the more immediate my old self is, the more pervaded my eyes can become with reminiscence. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it can threaten to crowd out wonder and the uniqueness of now. As Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel put it, "we rarely discover, we remember before we think." So what are we to do if we are to be present in the present? We must cherish (or 'grok' a la Robert Heinlein and, more recently, Mayim Bialik) all our past selves, all we remember. We must hold it all with love, and then tenderly place our past in our pockets as we open our old/new eyes and learn to see again.

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