Philosophy in Siddhartha

In my personal opinion, this kind of thinking would be hard to grasp as a westerner because most of us have been raised to think that we have to learn to grow, experience life before we can be wise, in that order. The idea of already containing wisdom and being on a journey toward perfection never occurs to westerners due to the fact that we never try to find ourselves; we don't think that we already embody all of the answers to eternal life. I've never bothered to look deeply inside of myself to find the old man within me. In fact, I've associated old with being crippled and closer to death. I would rather not be a wise old man; I would rather be young and naive until the time comes for me to accept my fate. That journey will be traveled on a slow pace, hopefully, because perfection is not my ultimate goal in life. Its what I do on my journey that makes life worthwhile.