i know where i've been

To become aware of our history is to become aware of our singularity. It is a moment of reflective repose before we devote ourselves to action again. “When we dream that we are dreaming,” Novalis wrote, “the moment of awakening is at hand.” It does not matter, then, if the answers we give to our questions must be corrected by time. The adolescent is ignorant of the future changes that will affect the countenance he sees in the water.

The mask of an old man is as indecipherable at first glance as a sacred stone covered with occult symbols: it is the history of various amorphous features that only take shape, slowly and vaguely, after the profoundest contemplation. Eventually these features are seen as a face, and later as a mask, a meaning, a history.

Octavio Paz – The Labyrinth Of Solitude