Do You Ever Really Know Who You Are?

How do you know that you are the same person who wakes up in the morning that went to sleep the night before?

-- Aimless (aimless@national_raffle_association.org), January 05, 2002

Answers

I always take the precaution of making a set of my fingerprints before I retire for the night and matching them up first thing in the morning.

-- Rex (rex@waitrose.com), January 05, 2002.

I seal up a question in an envelope at night and if I don't know the answer in the morning I know I am me.

-- Dolly The Sheep (mike.morris@anthro.ox.ac.uk), January 05, 2002.

The question is not whether you are the same person, but whether others are fooled by you.

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), January 05, 2002.

Personally, I've always hoped that the person I wake up as has no connection whatsoever to the sad old drunk who went to bed the night before. Unfortunately certain strands of memory always foil the plan. I suppose the only answer is to get a good deal drunker.....

-- Bollard (tim_collard@yahoo.com), January 05, 2002.

Come off it, Aimless, we all know you didn’t write one word of this question – or, indeed, any of the replies, except this one of course…

-- Rex (rex@waitrose.com), January 05, 2002.

When I wake up in the morning I generally ask myself what's for breakfast.

This prevents the vexing mistake of eating supper straight off and then having to eat breakfast at the wrong end of the day to set things right. Once I fall into this mode, it can set in motion a whole train unwanted events. Egg yolk on my evening clothes. Waiting for public conveyances that never come. Attending matinees. Cycling without clips. Ordering take away food. A whole catalog of horrors.

But I don't suppose any of you have this problem.

-- Aimless (aimless@national_raffle_association.org), January 06, 2002.

Whoever is pretending to be me above should note that I don't work on Saturdays (quiet, Rex) so wouldn't be posting.

-- Outraged of Oxford (mike.morris@anthro.ox.ac.uk), January 07, 2002.

I ask this question constantly. Ergo, my personality must be consistent, even if my physical being isn't.
Mind you, I don't remember posting that response 5 contributions ago. Perhaps I'll wake up on Mars as Arnold Schwarzenegger one day. Who knows?

-- Pete Andrews (p.l.andrews@bham.ac.uk), January 07, 2002.

Rex remonstrated thusly: "Come off it, Aimless, we all know you didn?t write one word of this question..."

On the contrary, I have written all the words in the question in question, just not in that particular order.

-- Aimless (aimless@national_raffle_association.org), January 07, 2002.

The most horrid thing happened last night. While deep in my cups, I committed a faux pas and apologized, "I'm sorry. I forgot myself." And then... I realized it was true! I had completely forgotten myself.

The real hell of it was, I was the only one who knew how to unlock my bicycle and I was wearing my only pair of eyeglasses, so to avoid walking home myopically in a rather frigid drizzle I needed to find myself as soon as possible.

Luckily, I was able to enlist the assistance of some kindly standersby. With their keen and sober perceptions, I was soon enough found, but it was touch and go there for a moment. One of them observed that my eyeglasses were shoved up on my forehead and from there it was short work to deduce my whereabouts. I arrived home safely, but now I am afraid to leave the sitting room for fear of a repetition.

How do you folks do it? Fearlessly zipping about from place to place all day long?

-- Aimless (aimless@national_raffle_association.org), January 22, 2002.