At the beginning of Galen Strawson’s essay “I am not a Story”, I did not agree with his point of view at all. When Strawson claimed that it is “false that everyone stories themselves, and false that it’s always a good thing”, I could not help wondering but why? Do, or do we not create our own story when we live our lives? Prior to reading this essay, I held the belief that we do create our own ‘life story’ through everything that has happened in our lives. Our experiences shape us as a person, building up our identity which eventually leads to our ‘life story’. Though my perspective changed when Galen quotes from Salter’s Light Years, “There is no complete life. There are only fragments. We are born to have nothing, to have it pour through our hands.” He is explaining how the memories of our experiences are not complete. Therefore, we do no have the ability to either narrate or build our ‘story’ because we lose parts of what we remember. As a result, Galen claims, a life story would be inauthentic because if we live life to create a story, we are not being true to ourselves since we are trying to become someone we are not.
After reading through this essay, I have come to agree with some aspects of Galen’s argument, especially with the point he made about how life stories are inauthentic. When living my life, I have always felt that I make choices based on what others would expect out of me. In some cases, I do not make them after what I truly want, rather what others want to see out of me. Especially those close to me expect me to exhibit certain traits, characteristics, so I make decisions that will always exemplify them, even if they are not true to me. I now realize that I am creating a ‘life story’ that only includes fragments of who I really am as a person. It misses key pieces, impacting its authenticity.
This is an exceptional reflection. You map the progress of your thoughts and opinions and identify key moments that led to significant change. Well done! I love that Salter quote!