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I thought Syne was older than 16. My mistake.

Aw, low T?

I realized I may be something of a polymath when I tried to list all my interests on the Substack webpage. I quickly exceeded the character count allowable! I guess a better way of putting it is that I'm abit of a dabbler and a topical vagabond. A jack of all trades and master of none. I may not be able to infer so much what's in the box as just being able to think outside of it.

Between saying "I" and "me" there is the slightest glint of a difference, of a shift from one thing to another. My whole life has been dedicated to capturing this ephemeral flash of dislocation, of disappearance, that sparks between these two selves that I am. I am the mysterious gap of energy that unites them as one two-sided being---the verb "am" between saying "I am me."

"I" do things. Things happen to "me."

When we use "I" it is as an avowal, either of an action or a state. "I like pears." "I went to the store". "I am sick". When we use "me", it is as the object of some action. "She gave me a gift". "Talk to me". "He ran into me." There is then this shift from the avowed to the objectified. Of speaking as confessional to speaking as descriptive. There is a distinct Sartrean ethic behind this. An absolutely free act of dedication to being or not being something. "I am me." I am the claimant of my own being. I catch it on the fly, and am responsible for it. Existence precedes essence: THAT I am precedes and defines WHAT I am. I become what I commit to.

"I am me" is redundant, as it is trivial that you are both cause and effect of yourself. Although many people don't seem to realize it's a closed loop. Because our internal and external sense of agency effect each other. People can be convinced, through external circumstance, that they have no external agency, and they end up believing they have no internal agency.

Quote:"I am me" is redundant, as it is trivial that you are both cause and effect of yourself.

It's the fundamental unity of being oneself. Like the Law of Identity A=A. Selfness is inherently reflexive, not redundant, being the act of deliberately claiming one's own objective being.

Too many of us are content with saying something true when we could, with a little more thought and imagination, be saying something poignant that has never been said before.

You do not lose the beauty of your youth. All that beauty just goes inside as you get older---the outer sunshine turning into an inner moonglow.