summercomfort (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
summercomfort) wrote2002-01-22 08:21 pm
summercomfort) wrote2002-01-22 08:21 pm
Wisdom of the ages...
I remember feeling very confident and self-assertive when I was in fourth grade. I felt like I was my own person, with my own ambitions, and that my parents sometimes didn't understand them. Yet now when I look at my brother fumbling through his fourth grade years, I marvel at how immature he seems. That of course leads to the question, "Was I like that back then?" And the answer is always, "Yes." I felt no different then than how I feel now. Yet I had matured so much since that tender age of nine. (Yes, matured, just a little.) The plausible conclusion to this train of thought is of course, "Will I look back four, seven, ten years from now and shake my head at my own naivety? Regret the time wasted in pointless pursuits?" Yes. I will. But I also know that I will enjoy all of these mistakes, and perhaps look back not with regret, but with the tolerance and not just a little nostalgia of an adult toward a child.
On the other hand, I want to be like my mom, who has been through so much and is still a teenager at heart.
Of course, this leads to this famous Confucian quote:
Sushu's crappy translation:
"When I was fifteen I had taken learning as my ambition. At thirty I knew what I stood for, at forty I was no longer confused. At fifty I had found the meaning of life, and at sixty I was no longer troubled by any words. And at seventy, I could do whatever my heart desires without violating any natural laws."
The real translation:
"At fifteen I began to be seriously interested in study. At thirty I had formed my character. At forty I had no more perplexities. At fifty I knew the will of heaven. At sixty nothing that I heard disturbed me. At seventy I could let my thought wander without trespassing the moral law."
Confucious himself found his ambition at fifteen and was truly able to answer to himself at thirty. It'll probably take me longer than that, for I don't even know what my ambition yet.
On the other hand, I want to be like my mom, who has been through so much and is still a teenager at heart.
Of course, this leads to this famous Confucian quote:
Sushu's crappy translation:
"When I was fifteen I had taken learning as my ambition. At thirty I knew what I stood for, at forty I was no longer confused. At fifty I had found the meaning of life, and at sixty I was no longer troubled by any words. And at seventy, I could do whatever my heart desires without violating any natural laws."
The real translation:
"At fifteen I began to be seriously interested in study. At thirty I had formed my character. At forty I had no more perplexities. At fifty I knew the will of heaven. At sixty nothing that I heard disturbed me. At seventy I could let my thought wander without trespassing the moral law."
Confucious himself found his ambition at fifteen and was truly able to answer to himself at thirty. It'll probably take me longer than that, for I don't even know what my ambition yet.