..And it is very funny (or sad, depending on how you like to put it), in how unexpectedly creative ways life sometimes foils one’s plans and intentions, both vaingloriously small and sincerely grand. Like a grand-master chess move, if not crossing out irrevocably but then checking so many opportunities – all at once.
The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
Gang aft a-gley
…
I remember having a conversation with one of my bright colleagues at work, who, at an age of thirty, was still working under this so dearly youthful notion that it will always continue going upwards, that the energy and time is abundant and that only good – and then better – things are just around the corner in this bright, exciting and undoubtedly benevolent future.
Well, I told him, whichever is the exact trajectory of a someones life, there is always a point where the aggregated growth grinds down to a halt, and then the derivative changes the sign.