Lived experience and its corresponding memories are in and among that list of seemingly intangible things which only translate into this plane of being by means of arbitrary association. Take for example, the peaks and valleys of human interaction and the intersubjective sense of self it entails. It may take voluminous amounts of text to either affirm or refute a claim as to how "real" or "authentic" a lived experience may be but a point of contention exists between the two with the following proposition: "This is meaningful, neither because of the alleged authenticity of the experience nor its accuracy as an imperfect portrayal. This is meaningful because it is what it means to me."
The question of the reality and validity of experience and memory is in this case rendered irrelevant as existence and memory both take root in the realm of perception and reflexivity. As the symbolic interactionist school of thought would posit, people operate based on the meanings they create for the things people say, the things people do and the things these people leave behind. The artifacts we leave in the wake of our conscious existence are built upon the meanings we draw from the lives we lead. Likewise, the course of the meanings we make for ourselves shape the way we live our lives.
This world we live in is built from the inside out.
With that statement, I would like to affirm my belief in the depth of substance there is to find in the non-human elements of life and the lived experience. Each of the things I touch hold a lifetime's worth of experience for me and whereas this whole paradigm leaves me geared towards the neuroticisms of hoarding, it goes far beyond the level of use-value an individual would typically associate with inanimate objects. At least for a second, I have the universe in my hands; to have and to hold.
Among others, I collect cds, records and people's handwriting. More than that, I collect a lifetime's worth of beautiful memories.
The question of the reality and validity of experience and memory is in this case rendered irrelevant as existence and memory both take root in the realm of perception and reflexivity. As the symbolic interactionist school of thought would posit, people operate based on the meanings they create for the things people say, the things people do and the things these people leave behind. The artifacts we leave in the wake of our conscious existence are built upon the meanings we draw from the lives we lead. Likewise, the course of the meanings we make for ourselves shape the way we live our lives.
This world we live in is built from the inside out.
With that statement, I would like to affirm my belief in the depth of substance there is to find in the non-human elements of life and the lived experience. Each of the things I touch hold a lifetime's worth of experience for me and whereas this whole paradigm leaves me geared towards the neuroticisms of hoarding, it goes far beyond the level of use-value an individual would typically associate with inanimate objects. At least for a second, I have the universe in my hands; to have and to hold.
Among others, I collect cds, records and people's handwriting. More than that, I collect a lifetime's worth of beautiful memories.
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