How do we know what matters to ourselves as persons?

We have to look inside of ourselves to know what really matters to us as a person.

By what we do?

I need a thicker layer of skin. Our boundaries are respected then we know we matter.

If you insult me, it will not matter much to me, maybe not even matter at all. Why is that?

You don’t build a story around it.

If my cat scratches me, it will not matter as much as if you scratch me. Why is that?

You expect cats to scratch. Expectations? Relationships. How I relate. How I communicate with the cat and you.

How do I know who I am? The most ancient and profound schools of philosophy make this their central question. How do I know who I am?

That question gives my brain a cramp.

The interface between. I remember a Buddhist talk that said who anyone is to you is defined in the interface between you.

Do we have to know? Or can it just be a mystery?

I like not knowing until I find a simple answer that is.

Don’t you have to know you are a doctor if you are going to practice medicine on someone? Or a cop if you are going to attempt to enforce law?

Yes. I’d know I was a doctor if I had a medical degree with my name on it. Degrees are stories.

So my story tells me who I am? Yes. What is a story?

A series of events.

Our life. We have many chapters that are on going.

Then I am an open journal with a few scribbled pages and many blank ones left.

I rip out pages that I don’t like.

Are there stories without characters? Are there stories without conflict?

Boring stories?

There is always conflict. Every page must have conflict to be a good story. That’s a golden rule in writing.

Many of today’s conflicts are between man and nature, and we suffer as much as we prosper from that. The doctor story is man versus sickness. The politician story is man versus man. The police story is man versus man.

Do we have roles without conflict? Science is many versus the universe, man versus the universe. Atheism is man versus god. Progressive politics is man versus all conditions. So what matters would seem to be stories.

So the very existence of everything and nothing is conflict.

Is there anything else that matters? Persons are characters, agents in those stories. We used to include animals in our stories, still do, but much less now than we used to.

Shall we get into some science?

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~