Bumped into a high school friend for the first time in 30 years.

[jaxexpat]

47. We all grow with experience. The more impactful experiences, the greater growth.

Growth experiences are like stoplights. There is a pause in the trajectory of your life and an opportunity to change direction or proceed back onto the same path. Most growth experiences are frightening in that they challenge preconceptions, demand some thought which requires some personal introspection. If this arduous task is left undone one may remain stopped forever, turning neither left nor right and going nowhere.

That's why when I encounter a "conservative" I mostly see people stuck at the intersection of fear and laziness. They've grabbed the first easy concept, one which denies the value of change, to obsess over. In their intellectual and spiritual stagnation, they condemn all reforms and improvements of any kind. BTW, they're suckers for anybody selling resentment for hope. They've assumed their thin skin of manufactured cynicism is a sign of sophistication. What's worse, they assume everybody they meet sees it the same way.