“Who am I?”

 

It’s a simple, yet unanswerable question, and it can serve as one of the great frustrations of our human existences. Practically speaking, we should be able to answer. After all, we spend our entire lives – every thought, every perception, every waking moment of consciousness – within ourselves. And yet, we struggle to answer this fundamental question about who we truly are.

 

But perhaps it’s exactly because we spend all of our lives within ourselves, and because we’re so close to ourselves, that we lose the ability to see ourselves objectively. Think about it. Your eyes are the only camera that you will ever see the world through, your life is the only plot that you will ever experience, and your ears provide the only soundtrack that will ever accompany your existence. By all indications of the human experience, you are the center – the protagonist – of the world. Of course, we all know that we’re not (in theory). But in practice, it sure seems that way. That’s why “protagonist thinking” is so pervasively common among us. Perhaps even inescapable.

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For example, have you ever gazed longingly out the window during a particularly rough day while listening to a terribly sad song for dramatic effect?

 

Maybe you have. And maybe you liked it.

 

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