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I Believe In People

There was a philosophical question asked by many people, but the popularity of it was mainly attributed to a greek philosopher named Plutarch. Who asked.
if the entirety of an object is replaced piece by piece, does it truly remain the same object?

In his question it was a ship, later on, it became an ax, for ease of explanation I will use a car.

You're given a car by your uncle who bought it brand new 15 years ago, he gave it to you because all the windows on it were broken, so you replaced them. 2 years down the road the axles need to be replaced, then the interior, you lose a key and need a new ignition, a wandering deer causes you to need a new body on it, years later it needs a new engine. (now assume you put the money and time in to fix all these things and haven't given up on it) and in the time of you owning this vehicle you have had to replace EVERYTHING. Is it still the same vehicle? At what point does it become something different?

Now allow me to postulate (suggest) this.

After heartbreak you forgo pieces of yourself, in life you lose your mind, friends, your once smooth skin is in time etched with scars, emotions harden, things change.
So at what point do you stop being you and become someone new?

How much of you needs to be replaced to become someone else?

This can be seen and summarized in the quote.

No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.
- Heraclitus

and in this if you are not the same person, then everything is possible.

Just because the you from your past failed a task in no way means the you now will fail also.

being broken is not the end, it's simply a chance for something new.
Umile41-45, F
Keeping it STRONG. 馃挭
SW-User
In your exmaple of the car, the car changes, almost entirely.. so in its own it's a different car, but to us.. it could remain the same.

Why do we stay with people we love for so long even though they've changed so much? Because there's a part of them that we love, that part isn't really theirs, it's ours. It's the memories, the time shared, and what they have always meant to us.

Yes, we change, a lot, especially when we are broken.. but becoming something new doesn't erase our old selves, it just builds on them. When the painting is finished, it's a messy one.. but to know that we've used all the colours available to us in our palate, that's what we should aspire to do.. that's a life lived.
lovingdead31-35, M
@SW-User well explained it should be an aspiration. Yes so many people dont.

And I worryI made it a bit convoluted with the car thing, the ax (grandfather's ax) was simpler, the handle breaks, thus needing to be replaced, the sheath falls apart and another is made, the head crack/chips and a new one must be reforged. All three components gone. Granted you may have memories of using his ax, but none of it physically remains. I understand what you are saying though. Perhaps that speaks to the tangibility of memories.
SW-User
@lovingdead I think what I was trying to say is that how things exist in the physical realm doesn't matter to us as much as how they exist in the psychological one. Memories are only a part of that, it's about what they represent to us, what they mean.. and that isn't as easily refurbished as the sum of their parts.
DanielChristensen46-50, M
Well said 馃檹

 
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