I am aware of the need for constant self-revision and growth, leaving behind the renunciations of yesterday and yet in continuity with all my yesterdays. For to cling to the past is to lose one's continuity with the past, since this means clinging to what is no longer there. My ideas are always changing, always moving around one center, and I am always seeing that center, and I am always seeing that center from somewhere else. Hence, I will always be accused of inconsistency. But I will no longer be there to hear the accusation. (p.19)

And indeed he was and continues to be, accused of inconstancy. For many people, critics and admirers alike, Merton's indifference to the value of consistency both puzzles and provokes. He is an enigma.

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