I have been thinking about names and family history. We try to draw from genetics a molecule of courage or brilliance, some talent that will make us shine above the rest.

Part of me feels like I'm letting go of my former life (even though I haven't lived that life in a long time) as I've been sorting - deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. It's really only symbolic but it seems to hold meaning. I don't understand it all. But I'm glad I'm doing it now...I want to be able to look to the past with fond memories, but not to cling to it.

The past is buried in cement. You can try to expunge unfortunate facts from your biography when you tell it to other people—celebrities and their publicists do it all the time—but those facts are still there. Conversely, the future is liquid, waiting to be created. If you retreat into the past, with its previous defeats or triumphs, you are escaping from the future and thus from your freedom. Many people live in the past solely so they don’t have to think about their next move. Or even worse, to justify why their next move will be exactly like past moves.

quotes:

top: from wendycooper.net
middle: from Worship Warrior
bottom: from SOMA