I've got to get out to my housesitting duties here soon, but I wanted to post a little bit about the individual and individuality. For today, I'm going to post a little segment of dialogue from the movie "Waking Life," my screenname, lifeawakened is drawn from that and my experiences I've had watching that movie. If you like philosophy especially dealing with metaphysics, it is a great movie to check out.

Woman 1: Well you know that thing Benedict Anderson says about identity?
Woman 2: No.
Woman 1: Well he's talking about like say a baby picture. So you pick up this picture, this two dimensional image, and say, "that's me." Well to connect this baby in this weird little image with yourself, living and breathing in the present you have to make up a story. Like, this was me when I was a year old, and then later I had long hair, and then we moved to Riverdale, and now, here I am. So it takes a story that is actually a fiction to make you and the baby in the picture identical. To create your identity.
Woman 2: The funny thing is, our cells are completely regenerating every 7 years, we've already become completely different people several times over. And yet we always remain quintessentially ourselves.

This movie deals a lot about who we are and whether or not we matter. There is a great discourse I think on free will that I'm still trying to wrap my mind around. Basically the movie has a lot of little monologues and dialogues that delve into the psyche and physical condition. While it is not overly spiritual, I find moments where I feel like what the philosophers are getting at is some deeply spiritual stuff. When people realize there are not explanations for some things in this world that are just astounding, it becomes eye opening. In any case, it is one of my favorite movies even if it is a little philosophically heady (I often will just watch a scene or two to get my mind moving).

How we grow and change is absolutely fascinating to me. Even though we are evolving into being completely different every 7 years, we are still the same essentially. I just love that idea because it really opens up possibilities to the stability and complexity of who we are. In a world that is constantly changing, we are still essentially the same. Things like these really make me step back and think with wonder and awe about how amazing God is to have created such complex beings that are ever changing and yet are the same as before, always linked through stories. It truly is beauty to me.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 28, 2006 at 5:10 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.