At a funeral today I had a chance to talk with a guy I knew in high school but haven't seen for fifteen years. Time has changed us both in very similar ways. For instance, neither of us particularly care about our birthdays anymore; if you ask me what I want to do for my birthday, my answer will be that I don't know. At this point, it's just another day for us.
The consensus seems to be that I've softened a bit over the years. Some of the rough edges are....not quite as rough as they were when I was younger. In some ways I can see it; in others I feel I'm the same old bastard I've always been. But it's been my experience that people are pretty typically poor judges of themselves, so if people say that I'm kinder, gentler me, they're probably right.