from Barbara Crafton

That's what a young person does: he builds a self. Then he spends the second half of his life learning how to take it down again, how to take it apart and examine the pieces of it, when to surrender a part of it that no longer makes sense. Each of these is a sacred vocation. All of us must do both. One is preparation for life. The other is preparation for the survival of meaning in the face of death.