Like most articles in The New Yorker, this takes a real deep dive into the topic, but it has me asking myself the very same question now.
Am I the same person I used to be?
On the surface, the answer to this question for me would be yes. Yes I am physically, the same Rob that I have always been. Granted, have a little more wear and tear on my body that I once did. But in the physical sense, yes I am the same person I’ve always been. It is, however, our experiences that mold us into the people that we are.
Ever since my divorce, I’ve been on a journey. And even some of the stops along the way on this proverbial journey have more than me into the person that I am. I’ve said before how my experiences with X2 have made me more jaded towards relationships than I’ve ever been in my life. Professionally, my work experiences have made me into a different worker than I was earlier in my career. Hi, for one, I like to think I’m a better parent than I was when I started this blog 10 years ago.
On my all-time favorite television show, Star Trek the next generation, there was an episode called “tapestry“. In it, Captain Picard goes on a George Bailey ask revisit of his own life and gets the opportunity to relive the moment he regretted. Late in the episode, after everything has returned to normal, Picard is talking to Commander Riker. He makes an analogy between his life and a tapestry. And just as a tapestry is made up of several pictures, our life is made up of each of those moments, those experiences, that make us who we are. Good or bad.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: There are many parts of my youth that I'm not proud of. There were... loose threads - untidy parts of me that I would like to remove. But when I... pulled on one of those threads - it had unraveled the tapestry of my life
Am I the same person I have always been? God I hope not. Would I do anything to unravel a tapestry of my own life? Not a chance.
Rebuilding Rob 