You’re probably already asking, “Whadaya Mean? Aren’t you about sixty years old by now, and fully who you’re going to be? Yep, that’s right, I am sixty, and that’s why I’m called The OLD Coyote. But to think that a man becomes who he is at an earlier age, and then remains there, presupposes that one stops growing, changing, and developing. Truth is, what I did, and how I lived, yesterday still influences how I am, and who I am, today. That’s both the beauty, and the curse, of life.
It’s like those ‘string balls’ people make. Some people collect string to make a ball, they add every little bit of string they find, and keep adding it to the ball, forever, it seems. The ball keeps getting bigger, heavier, changing shape and color. All of the string contained in the ball is part of the ball. It’s what makes up the ball. Once the string is added, and layered over with more string, it becomes a permanent part of the ball. It doesn’t matter how long ago the string was added. It doesn’t matter how deep in the ball it’s buried. It’s part of the ball. And it will always be part of the ball. As the ball gets older, larger, deeper, and more complex, the inner core becomes less visible, but no less important. Ultimately, however, the ball will be what the ball is on the day that the person who’s been making it stops adding string. It is the size it will be. It is the weight it will be. It is the shape it will be. And it is the color it will be. The beginning of the ball, or the middle even, is no less important than the finishing touches.
We’re a lot like that as people.
It’s important to me who I am today, but it is equally important to me who I was yesterday, and who I will be tomorrow, or at the end of my life. My life will be made up of all the days I’ve lived, not just the most recent ones.
We are the sum total of every day that we have lived.
The man I am becoming is the man that I will be.
