Upsides to the Down Economy/ We Are Who We Are- Or Are We?

As I was driving down Old Cutler past familiar haunts, I was thinking about The Beach Boys, specifically about how I liked them in high school and still like them. Then, I was thinking about how my dream (in high school) was to get a little beach house where I could escape on the weekends and how I still have that dream. I still like Elvis, still like cooking and writing and reading. So, I was thinking, how at the core, at lot of me is the same. A boy I knew in grade school used to ride his bike everywhere . Our first date was riding our bikes to Suniland theatre and I almost passed out before we arrived; biking was not my thing. He still rides his bike (but now to work). I, actually, ended up riding my bike to my first job (at good ole All Sports) and liked it (once I got into shape), but now prefer walking (or running). And that is something that has changed. When I had to run for the Presidential in High School, I thought I was going to die- I hated it. And my favorite movies in High School were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers musicals, now I like a wide variety of movies, from documentary to foreign films. I still, however, love Alfred Hitchcock movies, Bruce Springsteen, chocolate chip cookies straight from the oven, salami sandwiches, tapioca pudding, hot baths, strong coffee, split pea soup, sitting outside watching the sunset, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and traveling. So some of me is definitely the same, some of me has grown and evolved'; I am a work in progress. One day, when I was driving down a street in Tallahassee, I had an epiphany of sorts (why do I always have my epiphanies in the car?) and pulled over and started crying. It was just that who we are, who we really are, isn't how we look, the car we drive, the house we own, the clothes we're wearing, how much money is in our bank account. All of that stuff falls away, and what we are- the essential core of our being- is none of that. I felt a sense of unconditional love that day and also that it is who we love and who loves us back in this life that is what really matters. With or without a beach house.