You get to be wiser by storying the world and seeing it through other forms of consciousness than your own.

“Because in my experience, when I’m upset, and I tell someone, and they say, ’ Oh, I’ve been through that too’ and start telling me about it, I always feel worse. Seems to me when someone tells you something that’s really upsetting them, what they want is for you to listen to their troubles, not talk to them about your own.”

Are people like that? I wondered. Am I like that? Always me, like the river itself, always flowing but always different, like the water flowing in the river, sometimes walking steadily along andante, sometimes surging over rapids furioso, sometimes meandering with hardly any visible movement tranquilo, lento, ppp pianissimo, sometimes gurgling giacoso with pleasure, sometimes sparkling brillante in the sun, sometimes lacrimoso, sometimes appassionato, sometimes misterioso, sometimes pesante, sometimes legato, sometimes staccato, sometimes sospirando, sometimes vivace, and always, I hope, amoroso.

I wish we could have gone on like that forever. But life is not so accommodating. We couldn't and we didn't.