Cure time

Materials dry in stages. (Think: paint, clay, and concrete.)

In the first few minutes and hours, things begin to settle. Viscosities change. Surfaces might generate a skin. What was soft becomes firm.

Most of the drying happens up front. The curing, however — the gradual movement toward maximal hardness — that takes much longer. Maybe days. Maybe weeks.

We can make the mistake of thinking that we’re like these materials. That we’ve been molded and formed. Indeed, it’s a useful metaphor. But the metaphor can also imply that we’re in the final stages of hardening. That we’re locked in.

And we’re not.

We’re as pliable as we’d like to be. We can change our mind. We can change our approach. We can change our selves.

We can soften and we can change.

If we choose.