The quiet art of attention

I know some people may find the introduction engaging, but any article that begins: "There comes a moment in life..." you just know that the author is going to lay out some pretentious self-scripture.

This is an overly rigid view. "There comes a moment in life" can be used as a relatable, humanizing introduction, drawing readers into a shared experience or insight. It doesn't necessarily lead to pretentiousness—what matters is how the idea is developed after that.

I'm sad that you've never had singular moments in life that have caused fundamental reflection and re-evaluation of things you took for granted. I've had many. They're delightful, terrifying, hilarious, sombre, banal and life-changing, sometimes several of these at the same time.

I didn't find the article particularly pretentious, or "self-scripture", whatever that may be.

Perhaps dive in, reflect, and then ask after you've read the whole article whether it was pretentious "self-scripture" before assuming it is. As a heuristic, your current method seems a bit over-fitted to a false premise.