We ask too much of our lives, sometimes. We wait for a sense of meaning to stride onstage in a cape, announcing itself in love everlasting or revolutionary purpose. We want to escape the senseless things that happen to us, or find a way to resolve sense into them. We want our actions and experiences to feel victorious, purposeful in their own... See more

“In the end, people don't view their life as merely the average of all its moments—which, after all, is mostly nothing much plus some sleep. For human beings, life is meaningful because it is a story. A story has a sense of a whole, and its arc is determined by the significant moments, the ones where something happens. Measurements of people's... See more

It would be ridiculous, anyway, to have figured so much out at 35. What are you going to do for the next 50 years? Settle deeper and deeper until you’re dead in the ground? It sounds much more interesting to keep being surprised by who you are and what you want.

I’m not arguing that experience doesn’t bring about wisdom, only that wisdom is an... See more