The self I wished to be is the self I am.

The Solar System, “The Universe”,  J. Robinson, 1956.

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"I recognized the silences as signs.  We had been through this before.  Though we didn’t speak about it, I slowly prepared myself for the changes that would surely come."

- Patti Smith, Just Kids

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"It was life,
often unsatisfying, frequently cruel, usually boring, sometimes beautiful, once in a while exhilarating."
--Stephen King, Insomnia

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"This is the end, isn’t it?

And you are here with me again, listening with me: the sea

no longer torments me; the self

I wished to be is the self I am."

- Louise Glück, Meadowlands
 

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