WORDS OF WISDOM...

ADVICE TO MY YOUNGER SELF

- Ian Kirke

Eating steak had never had this effect on me before, but this was my first time at 4 Gats – the quintessentially quirky Catalonian restaurant in Barcelona. Opened in 1897, it was renowned as the foremost meeting place of the artistic, eccentric, and supposed outsiders. I felt immediately at ease; no doubt I was sitting at Pablo Picasso’s favorite table. As I drank in the unique ambiance, a weird, yet profoundly wonderful, notion entered my head. A thought experiment – the hallmark of Albert Einstein – consumed my consciousness: what would I do if I saw my younger self at a nearby table? How bizarre would that be? And most irresistibly, would I approach, and if so, what would I say? What piece of advice was worthy of endowing to my youthful self, without overwhelming him? I finished my delicious meal without an answer.

This conundrum continued to play on my mind maddeningly without a conclusion. In order to buy more time, I decided to share my quandary with a group of friends who readily agreed to participate in this idiosyncratic idea. My challenge was: Sitting in the crowded Fantasy Bar, you see your younger self at a proximate table. Youthful you is oblivious to your presence as you ponder what to do. On the wall hangs Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion: “Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.”

Do you leave or walk over? 

And if you choose the latter, what one piece of advice would you give yourself before departing? 

My Newtonian notice was vital since I remained somewhat cautious of an approach – and the potential of irreversible change even though it excited me to do so. Restraint or recklessness? I had to delve deeper before making my final decision. Meanwhile, my buddies were far more boisterous.