Each moment, we are recreated and a new self emerges as a part of a continuously evolving identity in the making. Identity, on some level, is rooted in a narrative. Narrative "creates us the very moment it is being created". It is through narrative that we are able to merge the various unfolding selves in which existence takes form. Narrative attempts to integrate the self that has been actualized in the past, the self that is unfolding in the present and the future self, that has yet to be born into existence. The stories we live by bridge the unstable, transitional, fleeting, situated selves into a coherent, discrete identity. They give form to our being.
But in the process of narrating the past self, we always forget. Each experienced moment vanishes into the abyss of our past and only a fragmented memory of it remains. The present is immediately transformed into an abstraction. In retelling, each lived moment is reduced to a brief summary, a couple of adjectives, a vague impression. Our memory fails us. Remembering thus...."is not the opposite of forgetting. It is a form of forgetting"
"An important challange to humanity is to recognize that lives are the pasts we tell ourselves"-Ochs & Capps
I think I'll dedicate the rest of my life to exploring the phenomenon of language.
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