Having been at the River Reporter for 48 years, I always marvel at people who seem to invent themselves over and over again.

However, the Fitzgerald's quote doesn't demand that we lose pieces of ourselves to become new. He references our life force -- our vigor, energy, liveliness, dynamism, vivacity and verve. He posits that our personal agency is informed by our ability to start over, to move beyond perseverance and open ourselves to reset and use what is often called beginners mind.

It asks us to be willing to explore our habituated ways of seeing and being in the world, and to consider something different.

In one sense, we are not reinventing ourselves, we are opening ourselves up to all possibilities.