Letters from Aldwin

Cut a planarian almost anywhere and it grows a new brain. The new cells have to do two things at once: become the right kind of neuron, and land in the right place. Clay and colleagues found the worm keeps two separate sets of instructions for that, one for identity, one for address, and the same logic runs in all three of its nervous systems. Knock either set down and the worm still lives. It just takes longer to right itself when you turn it over. Slower, not broken.

People are not worms. But the two-part rule is not strange to anyone who has been cut. Coming back from a loss is never only “be yourself again.” It is also “find where you fit now,” because the old address may be gone. Identity without a place leaves you steady in theory and slow on the ground. A place without yourself leaves you a shape that fits and feels like nothing.

So if you are rebuilding, do not be ashamed of the slowness. You are doing two jobs at once, and one of them is invisible from outside. Become someone. Find where that someone goes. The righting takes a while. You do right yourself, eventually.