yesterday, my soon-to-be 80-year-old client summed up our session with this thought:
"i think the most important job of adulthood is to deal with your family-of-origin stuff, something which can't really be undertaken until one is at least 40 years of age."
i have shared this gift with others since then.
why 40? perhaps arbitrary. but, for example, in the olden days, folks who were younger than 40 were not allowed to apply to doctoral programs because they had not yet inherited and assimilated enough life experience to merit the title of "doctor."
why family-of-origin? because the business of human connection, learned at our parents' knees (or not), is the sine qua non of being human and under girds all of our transactions. whether we (take the time to) acknowledge this or not.
and so i am regifting a gift, this insight, this simple musing about our ancestors, us, relationship, and the beneficent passing of time.
know thyself.
