Insight from Silvertail's ghost

On the train and then bus home tonight, I listened to Andrew Denton’s interview with John Hewson.  Hewson was talking about life after losing the 1993 election and of life after his second marriage broke down a few years back.  He spoke of how after both of these challenging periods, he ‘re-made’ himself, and that he must have ‘re-made’ himself four or five times over his then 59 years.

It got me thinking and wondering – have I ever re-made myself? And after some reflection, I think the answer is yes.

I’m different to how I was a few years ago.  And how I was then was different to how I was a few years before.  And another cycle of a few years.  If I take the Hewson View of Self, I think I could make a case for having re-made myself 6 times.  Below is a list of periods/events and the ages they could cover:

• Beginning, ages 0 – 9
• Moved towns, ages 9 – 11
• Parents separated, ages 11 – 13
• High School – ages 13 – 16
• Father dies, ages 16 – 19
• University, ages 19 – 22
• E’lise, ages 23 – present (25)

I’m sure I could condense those into two or three though, which would be:

• Beginning, ages 0 – 11
• Parents separate and father dies, ages 11 – 19
• University, ages 19 – 22
• E’lise, ages 23 – present

That was harder, only down to 3 re-makes.  I wonder if I do this exercise again in ten, twenty and say fifty years time, whether it will be any different? I can see things changing, for the better, when kids come along, but other than that I am hoping life is constantly happy and pretty well linear.

Anyway, the interview was good and I learned more about John Hewson.  And we’d all benefit from having Andrew Denton back in our lives more regularly.