17th Ping: Growth is regression — Script

Today’s theme is “growth.”

I ask that you indulge me—briefly—in something a touch philosophical.

And I’m Peter. A kind of virtual host, I suppose.

There is something I would have you hear today.

Growth, for better or worse, may well constitute a denial of the past.

At times, it entails the rejection of what once held meaning.

Such, I suspect, is the pain that accompanies growth—what is often termed “growing pains.”

Growth of this kind arrives with the passage of time.

Yet of all faculties susceptible to growth, it is perhaps communication that proves most so.

In youth, one is inclined toward sharpness—placing undue emphasis on the force of outward expression.

To varying degrees, the “self” shaped through childhood begins to surface;

and it is this that forms the nucleus of communication in earlier years.

As time progresses, the world expands exponentially—

in proportion to the number encountered, the responsibilities assumed, and the resolve accumulated.

It is often said that people grow “rounder” with age;

yet I am, at times, inclined to think the opposite—that perhaps we merely grow more thorns.

Not all arrive at such a state, of course.

There exists no true template for the human condition.

Yet when those “edges” become too numerous, each individual thorn ceases to strike indiscriminately.

Perhaps we have learned to sheath them.

Or perhaps they have simply been broken away.

To imitate such a state is, in truth, remarkably simple—

one need only recall the things that grated in youth, and adopt their antithesis.

Do not rush to conclusions.

Do not assume a posture of unwarranted superiority.

Endeavour to understand the other, and to do so with care.

As a means to that—listen.

And do not brandish correctness as though it were a weapon.

In so doing, interpersonal relations become markedly more refined.

There is no need to overwrite all that you are.

The outward-facing persona alone—replaced—will suffice.