Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Self-Claustrophobia (AKA Sally Gets Existential)

I thought of this sentence and almost posted it as a status on Facebook:
"I can run away forever but I'll still always be me."
It sounded way too much like the opening line of a poem by a whiny fifteen year old. So I didn't post it but that genuinely is how I feel.
It's a claustrophobic feeling; the world is huge but I'm trapped in myself; I can't escape this body or (to take it to an even smaller space) my own brain. I'll never get to see everything because I'll always be stuck in my own head.
And you'll always be stuck in your own head.
We're all trapped forever in tiny people-shaped capsules.
Why doesn't that constantly freak out everybody?!? I'm already claustrophobic; being stuck in the small space that is my body does not help.
Hell, even if I could go see the world, I'd still only see it from my point of view. I can't go off and visit, like, Scotland and then decide to take someone else's trip to Scotland, too.
Even if I travel to every country in the world, I'd only do the things it would occur to me to do. Other people visiting foreign countries would have different ideas and different experiences that are just as awesome as whatever I decided to do.
Even if I went with people, we all interpret things our own way. I could go to Scotland with a friend, we could spend the whole trip together and do all the same things, and we'd still each come away with a different experience.
The mere act of existing guarantees you're going to miss out on most of what the world has to offer. That really bothers me.

Be seeing you.
-Sally

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don't have to be stuck in your head all the time. It's up to you.

Anonymous said...

Who is the "me" you think you are? Inquire to the source of the I. Who is the one witnessing the incessant ramblings of the so-called mind? Where does "I" come from? Who am I really?

Staples said...

Are all three of you the same Anonymous or different Anonymouses?

Anonymous 1: That is merely what the brain you're trapped inside wants you to believe.

Anonymous 2: The human body contains a brain and that brain is made up of cells. Those cells form a personality and tell the body what to do. The brain that is telling this body what to do is the "I" that is me. Her name is Sally and I don't know anyone else like her.

Anonymous 3: :-D

Anonymous said...

There are things one can do that will help quiet the mind. Who is trapped inside a brain? If Sally is just a personality made by the brain, then who are you? How did you get trapped? Where did you come from? Where is your true home? Who are you really, if not the brain you are trapped inside? The only thing that traps us is belief.

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVUU3p5iHMA

Anonymous said...

Fortunately, the world has not much to offer.

- The Jew

Staples said...

Anonymous, I've wanted to respond to you for a while but what you're talking about is so far removed from what I'm talking about that I just can't come up with anything to say.
Even with all his cynicism, though, I think The Jew understood what I was getting at.