But enough of me. Lets talk about you. What do you think of me?
All of these are names given me by other people, but not names I would have given myself. My name is not mine, it's theirs. It's a series of costumes put on my life by other people.
As far as you can, get into the habit of asking yourself in relation to any action taken by another: "What is his point of reference here?" But begin with yourself: examine yourself first.
The agentive mind is not only active in nature, but it seeks out dialogue and discourse with other active minds. And it is through this dialogic, discursive process that we come to know the Other and his points of view, his stories. We learn an enormous amount not only about the world but about ourselves by discourse with Others.
We are all aliens to ourselves, and if we have any sense of who we are, it is only because we live inside the eyes of others.
Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another's skin, another's voice, another's soul.
The thing with labels is they're not for you, they're for other people. Like labels are just a word for other people to understand you and that's it.
The image of ourselves in the minds of others is the picture of a stranger we shall never see.
