I want to find my way, but I don't believe that I will. I feel very much like your Jeffrey (except, thank god, for the self-destruction). I read a story once where someone used the analogy of a compass to describe a person. That's how I feel, like a compass with the needle spinning in circles. Except there is no north for me. • Ishmael.org, the work & philosophy of Daniel Quinn

I want to find my way, but I don’t believe that I will. I feel very much like your Jeffrey (except, thank god, for the self-destruction). I read a story once where someone used the analogy of a compass to describe a person. That’s how I feel, like a compass with the needle spinning in circles. Except there is no north for me.

“Finding your way” isn’t something that you do once and are finished with thereafter. Finding your way is a lifelong process. Believe me, I didn’t make up my mind when I was your age to get to the place where I am right now. That would have been totally impossible. All I did (and have ever done) is head in the most promising direction that presented itself at the time–and I’m still doing that today. I’m still finding my way. It is sheer folly to think that you can make a plan for your life and then follow it. You have to look at the choices that are available to you every day and make the best ones you can, day by day. Every day, you’ll say of the previous day’s choice, “Well, that was a good one, that turned out well, I’ll head in that direction” or “Well, that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped, I’d better shift my direction by a bit.” This is what’s called living, and you can’t do all your living in a single day.

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