Put your hand out...

Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.

- T.S. Elliot

What is a human? A question frequently pondered upon by philosophers, the abstract nature of the answer can be difficult to comprehend in an absolute manner. The human, a machination of the flesh rich in carbon and a module of consciousness functioning on locally produced electrical impulses. An interesting question to ask could be if this machination is a mind with a body or a body with a mind. The antinomy of such a question would be to figure out if the consciousness developed into a body or if a body developed for a consciousness. Did it just occur to an ancient monkey some day that "Fuck, I can THINK???" or was it only when the monkey had evolved for ages to be able to KNOW its environment that it could finally look inside? And in either of these cases... WHY? It's so damn paradoxical to think of such a thing that it will probably make my head explode, and that would be counter-productive because the ladies are all over this pretty face.

What does it mean to be alive? One could argue that to be alive in a philosophical sense is to know that you're alive. The ability to perceive our own state of consciousness is what differentiates something that lives in a romantic sense to something that doesn't. It is the minimum criterion to be considered a living entity, or to rephrase... an entity that's ALIVE. But even such an entity that is alive must have limits to their consciousness because otherwise how would they be aware of their ignorance towards the elements of reality? We don't know what the true nature of the universe is, heck we don't even know how we form memories. All we really do know, from science, is quantification of phenomena, and from philosophy, that now is the only moment that really exists. I'd like to believe a person is formed by their sense of self, a vision ingrained into their consciousness, so deeply-rooted that it affects every single decision either directly or indirectly. Decisions are what make us the person we are, it's the stories we have to say born out of those choices that make us who we are. Story-telling, record-keeping, isn't it all just transferring memories over generations? But don't these stories often get twisted, misinterpreted, lost in translation? That would imply the only memories that can be TRUSTED are our own, experienced with both this body and this mind.

Your past left you with a story, an experience to help your future self, and I guess what I'm trying to say is, trust your experiences, your stories, your self. But don't get all fuzzy in the comfort. After all you had to make those stories afresh, and sometimes, you might have to make more new stories. No one knows what's gonna happen, but unless you take charge of the story you'd merely be a reader, an observer, a third party sans any control over the story. And that is something to be feared.