He remembered a version of himself untrammeled by expectation, unimpeded by Ego. He had suffered in the many years since then, seeking to return to that original self, if, in fact, it ever existed. And yet, he was helpless but to regard that unmistakable fear that gripped him in his dream as a sign that his unevenness lent him now to utter incongruity with this specter of past.
Ashim Shanker, Sinew of the Social Species
ego, emancipation, incongruity, liberation, loss-of-innocence, past-and-present, purity, remembrance-of-things-past, specter, suffering, symmetry