5 Memes About Finding a Self

Finding a self sounds like a simple task. So why do so many people openly say they are setting out to accomplish such a thing ?

Because it isn’t easy.

Here are 5 memes about finding a self.

One of the ways it isn’t easy to find a self is the challenge of bringing your freedoms into a relationship with what you can accept about your actions.

And people today don’t even want to talk about responsibility.

This one is closely related to John Calvin’s quote in his The Institutes :

“Without knowledge of self, there is no knowledge of God. Our wisdom, insofar as it ought to be deemed true and solid wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.”

(I am not a Calvinist myself, but I appreciate his spiritual focus).

Saying something “possessive” (e.g. that it is yours or mine) frightens the society we find ourselves today.

And that’s why people find their very lives stuck deeper and deeper in the tragedy of the commons.

If you’re not familiar with that tendency, it’s basically just the way that things fall apart when no one owns them.

This is just one misery society pushes on us.

Startling to think about how often options are compared and analyzed and how people over burden themselves with noting every trade off, but then no one factors in which option will make them truly happy.

If it’s true what Thoreau says about how the great mass of men live lives of quiet desperation, then something radical is needed.

In my story, I have found this is the radical gift and example of Jesus Christ.