Experience Is the Only Teacher

"Because experience is the only teacher," Hey-Soos says. "Even if I could have told you, it would have been a lecture. Why do you think kids don't listen to their parents, or people don't leave churches and do what the preacher tells them?"

From Deadline, by Chris Crutcher. From a scene in which Ben, the protagonist, is seeking the advice of Hey-Soos in one of his recurring dream conversations: "I'm pretty sure he spells it this way. I mean, he didn't say that, but in the dream I know it. . . . [He looks] like he should be pronouncing his name the other way. You know, sandals, bathrobe; got that hippie thing going. Dark, could be Mid-Eastern or Latino. Definitely a guy who gets harassed by Homeland Security."