35.40 Doubly Suprised

Imagine you could travel back in time to visit yourself at half your current age.  That is,  today’s you goes back to talk to you when you were half your age.

(In the past, I’ve given a similar assignment where I’ve asked you what spiritual-religious advise you would give yourself. Today, we will do something else.)

I want you to think about how you at half your current age reacts to finding out how your future unfolds.

What five things about you NOW would be most surprising to you THEN?  

1. ___________________________
2. ___________________________
3. ___________________________
4. ___________________________
5. ___________________________

I doubt any of us would have predicted our lives to be exactly (or even remotely) as they currently are.   

(Moreover, those people who you stopped talking to a few years back, they too have changed.)

My answers to the above exercise — when I was 21, graduating from college and planning on attending architectural school —  I never would have imagined that:

1. I live in LA
2. I teach math to inner-city Latino Kids
3. I am ordained as a rabbi
4. 3000+ people pay attention to what I say 77% weekly
5. I care more about being loving and loved that being clever and right

(I think I would be equally surprised by each, but I really like and am proud of #5.) 

How about you?  What surprises you about your life?

Spiritual-religious advice: in pondering how your life has changed, muse over how attached you are to the idea that your self is (at least somewhat) permanent.

Rabbi Brian