There were, he concluded, two ways of looking at the passage of time. One was the fast way, of paying attention to minute changes and developments as they progressed. How the young ones got taller, how the newcomers gradually became less new, how relationships went from early stages to full bloom. And then, there was the slow way, of seeing it all play out again and again over the years. How the small things gradually added up, through repetition and subtle gradations, one layer added atop another, previous incarnations and variations imparting their wisdom to the new generations. Nothing new under the sun, yet somehow also new every time