intersection

Imagine a point in space. The point exists on a line, with a beginning and an end. Intersecting the point are other lines, so many that the conglomeration resembles a Koosh ball speared on an arrow. There are hundreds of lines, even hundreds of thousands. They are of varying sizes...some are quite thick, others so faint as to barely be there at all.
The point in space is you, and the central line is the path of your life.
At any one moment, we are the intersection of uncountable lines. All these lines come together to create "us". Some of the lines have been with us as long as we can remember...for instance, since the first time someone said "moon" to you, there has been a moon thread in "you". Your relationship to "moon" is ever-changing, in tiny ways or big. There is a thread named "playground", one named "naked", and perhaps one named "Rip Taylor". There are new threads being added constantly...you yourself probably add threads at a slower rate than Samuel L. Jackson, but quicker than Pat Sajak. Our threads thicken when they are prominent in our life, then narrow as they fade into the recesses of our consciousness. Threads which have lain narrow for decades can suddenly burst into richness, like when you bump into a long-lost buddy in the Port Authority women's room.
Although twins in the womb come close, no two people are ever the same untraceably intricate intersection. Nor is one person ever the same intersection from one second to the next. If "Rip Taylor" were added to your intersection one year from now, instead of three years ago, not only would your intersection today be different, your Rip thread will be different a year from now than what it was three years ago. Who we are in a given moment controls how we react to that unique moment, forever altering and shaping our forward momentum.
If all this sounds like an argument against free will, i don't intend that. There are a million choices we make each day, and each one is just that, a choice. All our previous choices point us toward a likely reaction to each moment, but human nature is the single most unpredictable animal nature on the planet. It is therefore tempting to imagine our "point" moving forward on a squiggly line, with stops and turnarounds and circles. But through the lens of time, the choices that shape our path can be viewed as a unified forward-moving progression.
And while this Koosh image is not a determinist decree, it is a way of reminding you of the silliness and futility of beating yourself over the head for choices you made, or choices you wished to make...why couldn't i have met her/him ten years from now, why couldn't i have moved out of that city ten years ago, blah blah blah. Love who you are in this living moment, and when an opportunity comes for you to step outside your comfort zone, try to take it. If nothing else, you'll have one bitchin'ly beauteous Koosh at the end of the line.
Now if i could just find an artist who can paint all that...