"Just as in the second part of a verse bad poets seek a thought to fit their rhyme, so in the second half of their lives people tend to become more anxious about finding actions, positions, relationships that fit those of their earlier lives."

— FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE

Nietzsche’s words land with a certain clarity. We spend much of our early life establishing rhythm—the familiar rhyme of work, family, friendship, and routine. Those patterns become the poem of our first years. Then, somewhere along the way, we notice the rhyme no longer holds.

The instinct is to tighten our grip,