The Meaning Shift
Transformation doesn't add new experiences to our existing framework of meaning—it replaces the framework entirely. What once constituted life's highlights become shadows compared to forms of delight we couldn't have imagined. The self that weighs whether to become a parent operates with a completely different value system than the self that emerges from parenthood. We don't expand our capacity for joy; we discover it was calibrated for experiences we'd never encountered. Every profound change reveals that we were measuring with the wrong instruments all along.