Waking Life
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:35:00
Leaves a mark.
:35:02
And that story is singular.
:35:05
But, in fact,
it's story after story.

:35:13
Time just dissolves into quick-moving
particles that are swirling away.

:35:18
Either I'm moving fast or time is.
Never both simultaneously.

:35:22
It's such a strange paradox.
I mean, while, technically,

:35:26
I 'm closer to the end of my life
than I've ever been,

:35:29
I actually feel more than ever
that I have all the time in the world.

:35:33
When I was younger, there was
a desperation, a desire for certainty,

:35:36
Like there was an end to the path,
and I had to get there.

:35:39
I know what you mean
because I can remember thinking,

:35:43
"Oh, someday, like in
my mid-thirties maybe,

:35:48
everything's going to just
somehow jell and settle, just end."

:35:52
It was like there was this plateau,
and it was waiting for me,

:35:55
and I was climbing up it,
and when I got to the top,

:35:59
all growth and change
would stop.

:36:01
Even exhilaration. But that hasn't
happened like that, thank goodness.

:36:07
I think that what we don't take
into account when we’re young
is our endless curiosity.

:36:10
That's what's so great
about being human.

:36:12
- You know that thing Benedict Anderson
says about identity?
- No.

:36:16
Well, he's talking about
like, say, a baby picture.

:36:19
So you pick up this picture,
this two-dimensional image,
and you say, "That's me."

:36:24
Well, to connect this baby
in this weird little image...

:36:27
with yourself living and
breathing in the present,

:36:29
you have to make up a story like,
"This was me when I was a year old,

:36:33
"and later I had long hair,
and then we moved to Riverdale,

:36:36
and now here I am."
:36:39
So it takes a story
that's actually a fiction...

:36:43
to make you and the baby in the picture
identical to create your identity.

:36:47
And the funny thing is,
our cells are completely
regenerating every seven years.

:36:52
We've already become completely
different people several times over,

:36:55
and yet we always remain
quintessentially ourselves.

:36:58
Hmm.

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