A visit with my younger self: 13 July 1988

At this point, I was past the halfway point of summer and looking at my failure to accomplish the goals I’d set out for myself for the summer.

I really need to induce more discipline in my life. I know [sic] have six weeks to learn 15 weeks of Algebra.

First chapter of BusSongs. Young man riding bus, Old man next to him starts talking to him. Young man’s mindset as he listens to the old man’s words: at first he’s resentful but gradually he begins to listen and contemplate the old man’s ideas. Old man’s ideas: discuss jazz, politics, movies, love, introduce a philosophy for the book: that if love is not seized and held, it is lost. Young man gets off bus, At end of route old man talks to the bus driver (our protagonist Skip Jackson).

Reading this, I’m left wondering if there was something in real life that inspired this note, perhaps my own old man sitting next to me on the bus. I suspect, though, that I probably stayed in the resentful at listening to the old man stage of this experience.