Patchwork quilts
What defines an individual, as that? Generally, we look at the makeup of the person. Personality. Characteristics. Sense of humour. Mannerisms. Views on life. Appearance. To find two people who are exact matches in all those areas would be nothing short of amazing. The long running debate of nature vs nurture credits our genes and environment as the key factors to the final product. Yet even identical twins who share similar experiences in their growth invariably develop into unique people with their own thoughts and their own lives. Something different still happens, which results in different people. A new, individual.
But what is that existence? I suppose I cannot comment on any but the one I know the most, which I find a little puzzling at the moment for reason of a single question: are my thoughts, my own? Generally, the output of our thoughts are our speech and written word, so reviewing what is said is a fair measure of my thoughts. Reflecting upon the origin of the things I say, I find the following (no particular order); Simpsons, song lyrics, wikipedia, movies, the Bible, books I’ve read, things I’ve heard from other people. What of this is mine? Is any of it? To regurgitate what I’ve heard/seen elsewhere makes me a thought thief.. a pirate of intellectual property. Yaaaar. I could posit that my commentary on any of these thoughts is mine; my own critical opinion. But isn’t that opinion simply what was once a blank canvas and has had many many other influences paint it again and again, till it too is simply the evolving creation of a lot of other entities? Where is the individual in this?
Case in point, this very process reminds me of someone staring into a puddle and beckoning their reflection, “Who am I?”
I don’t know…
I’m currently in the process of moving. Boxing things up is a trip down memory lane for me; I find I burn a lot of time simply looking through old old things, reminiscing. Whilst doing so, the pattern is even clearer. Little objects, scraps of paper, photos.. all symbols of people who have had an impact on my life and helped shape it, change it.. create it? More and more, I feel I’m a union of a lot of people I’ve met.
It got me thinking about a patchwork quilt. Each person I experience, each film I watch, each episode of Simpsons I see.. it sews another little patch onto my quilt. When someone sees me, they see the quilt. All the little bits and pieces of what I’ve seen. That’s me.
But… it does make me wonder how anyone else is any different to that though. Maybe that is what every individual is. If the collection of patchworks is different between each person, then what makes us unique is our particular combination of experience, and the fact that every permutation creates a different person. Unique thought is born.
identity, patchwork quilt, philosophy, zoolander Find similar posts: philosophy
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January 7th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
so you’re a tabula rasa philosopher.
January 8th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
You’re quite a patchwork quilt, fradam.
January 20th, 2009 at 10:02 am
Fradam, i’ve had the same, yet not so extravagantly written, thoughts before. Came up with the following theory: 2 people, twins if you will, staying together side by side all through life, encountering the same experiences will always be different because as little as it appears, they will always have slightly different perspectives - because obviously they can’t occupy the same space.
One thing i used to do, and who knows, maybe i still do, is become heavily influenced by friends actions. I realised years ago that while trying to better fit in, i usually adopted part of my friends that made them fun to be around in hope that i in turn would also be.
As for what you said about your thoughts being a pirate of intellectual property, realise that the intellectual property is a result of their experiences around other people. So essentially you’re pirating pirated property which has in turn been pirated from other people way back to the dawn of time.
January 21st, 2009 at 8:02 pm
@Sammie: Haha, the blank canvas reference? Unintentional mention, I assure you; I suppose my canvas, it’s material, the contours and age of it reflect the genetics.
@Lyrical Lemongrass: so are you!
@Woody: I see you’re busy at work as always
But that is a really interesting observation, and highly true I’d imagine - at least, from my experience with twins that stand side-by-side.
Yaaaar!! Huzzah for a lot of rampant thought piracy. Yeah, that was the realisation I was coming to, toward the end there — that we all commit this piracy from others.. the noodle baking question being then, when was thought -ever- original?
January 21st, 2009 at 10:33 pm
Well, it’s original from the fact that no two people ever have the same experiences, which i’m happy to define as their individuality. Since thought is a product of the individual and individuality is unique, then there is always unique thought. Quantifiable productions of thought may be the same, but that’s only because they need to be defined within language constructs that are set down. Artists however, have a less restricted space in which to show their thought product, which is why it appears that artists are much more creative.