a man is defined by the words he quotes in his major inquiries in life and science. and by his family and the love or hatred or memory or kinship that he feels for them. and by his childhood and what he shared with his siblings. and how he preserves some of that as he grows up and moderates the others, erasing or retaining in memory all the while. by his friends, not just those who played and bled with him, but also those he could die for. those he could be silent with.

a man is defined by the woman he loves and she by him. and each is defined by the music they hear...

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away." - Henry David Thoreau