Here’s an interesting poem I found recently from the early 1940’s…or earlier.  It talks about taking account of who we are now, compared to who we thought we would one day become.  You might have to read it a few times to fully get it.

The Boy

A lad stood there, as I opened the door,
whom I thought I’d seen somewhere before.
“What do you want, my boy?” said I,
as he gazed at me with a puzzled eye.

“Excuse me,” he said, “for troubling you;
I’m seeking a friend that I once knew.
You look like him, you bear his name,
but now I see you’re not the same.

He used to live at this address,
but he has moved away, I guess.”
And turning away, he left my place
with disappointment in his face.

With a “Good-bye, sir,” he closed the gate,
and left me there disconsolate.
And then I heard, as strange it seems,
a voice I’d heard in my youthful dreams.

An inner voice, that said to me:
“That boy is the boy you used to be!
His wistful heart has a pang within,
for he’s seeking the man you might have been!”

-Andrew R. Marker

What do you think?  Of course, the goal of this poem is to get us to think about where we may have gone wrong in building our characters, and how we can get back on track.  Any thoughts?