Episode 12.77: Turning-points; pivotal moments; ladders we throw away; boats we burn: how we outgrow the world that made us who we are.

Most people reach a turning point in their lives when they turn against everything that has made them what they are. That can be family; it can be tribe; it can be society. It can be nation. It can even be world or species. But change and turn we do. The most balanced and mature of us turn benevolently to suggest that what has made us who we are needs now itself to be changed and to do better. We find ourselves having climbed into a tree using a ladder only to realise that we need the ladder no longer and can throw it away. We burn our boats.  We can no longer go back to what we were because we are determined to become a better version of what we are.