Found this gem near the end of John D. MacDonald’s Travis McGee novel “The Green Ripper”:

“Not one of us ever grows up to be what he intended to be. Not one of us fulfills his own expectations. We are all our own children, in that sense. At some point, somewhere, we have to stop making demands.”

We are what we are. Trying to live up to the demands of others – family, friends, society, and, most especially, ourselves is pointless. All you can do is try and leave the little corner of your world a little better place at the end of the day than it was at the start. Certainly, no worse.