Wow, this is so interesting to think about. I definitely agree with the fact that it also can feel like seeing your past lives on social media, especially when I see the people I used to work with and realize life goes on when you move on!
A compelling set of questions! I guess, though I do enjoy when time permits -- as it rarely does: kid, wife, cat -- scrolling through old posts from the days when we ran Carapace and were more active generally in social life offline. Recently, apart from Instagram posts (kid, wife, cat mostly; some food), I'm offering links to my writing, having given up the "submissions" game in that realm -- and submitting in most other contexts! As for the matter of who I "am," or who anybody "is" ... identity seems way too fluid to be called by that name at all, or to submit (!) to static verbs like "is" or "am." And then whatever it "was" dissolves and we don't have to think about the subject anymore, having joined the residents of Oakland Cemetery or some other one, pushing up camellias.
I love your point about static verbs. I think for so long I thought I would discover who I was and become fixed when what I've found is that I keep evolving.
Wow, this is so interesting to think about. I definitely agree with the fact that it also can feel like seeing your past lives on social media, especially when I see the people I used to work with and realize life goes on when you move on!
Yes, for sure with old coworkers and work spaces. You think, how could they ever survive without me? And then they do.
A compelling set of questions! I guess, though I do enjoy when time permits -- as it rarely does: kid, wife, cat -- scrolling through old posts from the days when we ran Carapace and were more active generally in social life offline. Recently, apart from Instagram posts (kid, wife, cat mostly; some food), I'm offering links to my writing, having given up the "submissions" game in that realm -- and submitting in most other contexts! As for the matter of who I "am," or who anybody "is" ... identity seems way too fluid to be called by that name at all, or to submit (!) to static verbs like "is" or "am." And then whatever it "was" dissolves and we don't have to think about the subject anymore, having joined the residents of Oakland Cemetery or some other one, pushing up camellias.
I love your point about static verbs. I think for so long I thought I would discover who I was and become fixed when what I've found is that I keep evolving.