Arduous Acceptance

"Stop there and let me correct it, I want to live a life from a new perspective"
        --Panic! At The Disco, "New Perspective"

"A terrible confession it was (he put his hat on again), but now, at the age of fifty-three one scarcely needed people any more. Life itself, every moment of it, every drop of it, here, this instant, now, in the sun, in Regent's Park, was enough. Too much indeed. A whole lifetime was too short to bring out, now that one had acquired the power, the full flavour; to extract every ounce of pleasure, every shade of meaning; which both were so much more solid than they used to be, so much less personal" (79).

This passage discusses the importance of self-reliance and self-acceptance. Peter Walsh reflects on the "shades of meaning" of nature and the world, representing the perspectives of all people. He believes that an entire lifetime is too short to understand the perspectives fully, yet says that living a life all alone is enough. To me, this is contradictory because someone should gain happiness and contentment from knowledge obtained by understanding others. The use of commas to separate phrases about life symbolize the difficulty of finding meaning to your own life. Because Peter is a matured man, he doesn't "need people any more" in order to find happiness. His perception has changed throughout his life, but is "much more solid" due to maturity gained from encountering moments in life. You have to live through "every moment" and "every drop of it" to realize the actual importance of moments that inevitably form your perspective on life and yourself. Now, he relies on his fabricated perspective to find and enjoy things in life. Peter isn't hurt by actions against him; they are "so much less personal" because he fully accepts his present life and his present self.  Life would be more pleasant for all if we realized that we don't need others to accept our perspective. We need to accept it on our own.