When do we become a different person
Cris has started a Bear Blog Carnival asking for "How and when did you become a different person?" and this is my entry.
I think I am pretty much the same person as yesterday, or a week ago. But what about a year, 5 years or 20 years? Plenty of things are different. Change is gradual and for me not necessarily defined by big events. Getting married or becoming father didn’t make me a vastly different person. In a sense, we are the same person from birth to grave, though of course what people when they say they have become a different person is that they have grown or changed in some way.
As I have written about before I think what truly matters is the normal days, the days that blend together, the days that don’t in themselves make a lasting impact. But combined together over years, they make the greatest difference.
For starters, my political views don’t change from day to day, but looking back I have definitely developed into a less idealistic, but more nuanced and pragmatic world view. Pretty normal for getting older, as things usually don’t turn out so simple in practice as one might think. Few things are black and white. There are also issues I have previously been ignorant and unknowledgeable about, especially when it comes to experiences from marginalised people or just someone with a different background than myself. Spending time on Reddit, for all the sites flaws, has given me that wider perspective simply by reading about day to day struggles from ordinary people in different countries.
While engaging in online discussions often can feel pointless as it is very rare for anyone to admit they have changed their view, I do believe there are long term effects. I cannot point to a single discussion or a single news article that changed my view on something, but over years of gradually being more informed and having the time to reflect on the new knowledge, has changed my perspective. I also think that can be observed on a societal level, with for example how the #metoo-movement has changed a lot of discourse around gender issues - and my own understanding as well. If you take a decade long perspective on things.
To end on a pretentious note with a quote from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "change is the only constant in life”.