“We understand something by locating it in a multi-determined temporal continuum. Existence is no more than the precarious attainment of relevance in an intensely mobile flux of past, present, and future.”
-Susan Sontag
Bit by bit, we take in the data around us, retrieve old memories, and dream new dreams to construct a sense of self; to carve our identity.
Our existence is documented, quite like a polaroid. Snapshot by snapshot.
The end goal?
To construct a narrative.
A narrative that can answer the simple question: who am I?
As human beings we rely on storytelling to not only help us understand our past, but make sense of our present, and plan for our future.
And yet I can’t help but think about how, even the mere act of observing our own existence (in the attempt to create some meaning out of it), is to disturb the very act of living.
Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle states that measurement requires active involvement with the object being measured; therefore, to probe is to interact, and to interact is potentially to disturb.
And yet, if we don’t observe, and reflect upon our life.
We risk wandering aimlessly – letting happen what may happen.
And yet by simply seeking to attain relevance of our existence by interpreting what is happening to us, we influence what is happening, and what will happen.
Perhaps the point isn’t to escape this duality, but rather to admire the possibility that it creates:
Because if nothing is what it seems.
We are only limited by what we dare to dream.
And what we believe, is what will come to be.
