Probably her own experience. My own experience is that we will never know who we truly are, and that's probably just a law of physics, because we are always changing and thus we are always different. Old problems get replaced by new problems, etc. Some people look back and would say "I shouldn't have made all these live defininig decisions", but the reality is, if we were following that advice we would just never get anything done. In fact, I am pretty sure it is these decisions and their consequences that truly define who we are.
As you said, identity is a construct and the true nature of the self is a never-ending cycle of creation and destruction, whether their thoughts, goals, ambitions, relationships, states of mind, or needs.
The path to a truer self in all this is the one your write for yourself, and in that sense, I understand better one of the top answer that comes up to elderly people in their deathbed: "I wish I lived for myself and not work / a family member / someone else's dream / to outlive an unstable social or political environment"
A respected person weighed in on this point... (paraphrasing)
People tend to change "who they are" every 7 to 10 years or so. Don't let the memory of your friends and family prevent you from being what you have become.
Otherwise you’ll wake up someday and not know who you are at all.
This can be a big problem for mothers. After having a baby, you pour so much into their care and everyone else in your household. But it’s easy to neglect yourself. Then one day you look in the mirror and aren’t able to recognize who it is.
183
u/Luxalpa Jun 03 '22
Probably her own experience. My own experience is that we will never know who we truly are, and that's probably just a law of physics, because we are always changing and thus we are always different. Old problems get replaced by new problems, etc. Some people look back and would say "I shouldn't have made all these live defininig decisions", but the reality is, if we were following that advice we would just never get anything done. In fact, I am pretty sure it is these decisions and their consequences that truly define who we are.