Yiyun Li On The Malleability Of Our Past

Our memories tell more about NOW than THEN.

Our memories of our past can sometimes be fudgy for many reasons. This is because is the past is often a captive of the present. As humans, we use whatever we are facing in our present to interpret our past... and predict our future. However, this view is prone to much error and fantasies. It causes us to reinterpret the past as we see fit and thus a reason why it is never a great idea to stare too much into the abyss of time long gone.

Yiyun Li, the author of Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, knows this too well. In this books she explains how deceptive our minds can be about our past. She writes:

"Our memories tell more about now than then. Doubtless the past is real. There is no shortage of evidence: photos, journals, letters, old suitcases. But we choose and discard from an abundance of evidence what suits us at the moment. There are many ways to carry the past with us: to romanticize it, to invalidate it, to furnish it with revised or entirely fictionalized memories. The present does not surrender so easily to manipulation."

Since our past memories are like dough in the hands of our present self. We must be careful as to how we knead and shape them.

Many thanks to Penguin Books (UK) for review copy. You can purchase a copy of the book at Amazon and other major online bookstores.

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William Combs On The Root Of Self Image, Human Insecurities And Delusions

Very few people truly care less what the world thinks of them. It is coded into humans to be wary of how people see us.

William Combs, in his new book, Who Told You That You Were Naked?, believes this self-image is tied to the beginning of man after the fall. The author believes that the reason the first couple, after eating of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil, did what they did (covering themselves) was because:

"They became aware of the merits of their individual differences, the most obvious being the characteristics that distinguished them as male and female. While those differences were there all along, they now compared their own uniqueness with those of the other person in light of their newly acquired understanding. In making this evaluation, each must have concluded their own differences were not as good as those of their spouse...

"The devastating repercussions of these subjective assessments created feelings of personal embarrassment, shame, and a growing conviction their nakedness was no longer acceptable to the other person."

Also, when we perceived we are being judged it is natural for us to try and hide by any means possible. Some of the ways we "hide" is by lashing out in anger or by becoming sullen and into ourselves. These reactions were prominent when God inquired from Adam and Eve why they were hiding. According to William Combs:

"Although Adam admitted he ate the fruit, he asserted he acted because the woman God gave him had urged him to do so. By accusing his wife—and also portraying the Lord as partially culpable—he revealed just how threatened and - cure he was and how much his opinion of the Lord’s motives had changed. In Adam’s eyes, God’s intentions were no longer those of a person who could be trusted and who loved him and sought to restore his self-image. "

You can find this insight and many more in William Comb's Who Told You That You Were Naked?.

Many thanks to Carpenter's Son Publishing for review copy.

4 Common Misconceptions Of Some Bible Passages From Sarah Ruden's The Face Of Water

The Face Of The Water: A Translator On Beauty And Meaning In The Bible is a book that strives to correct misconceptions about few Bible passages and seeks to get close to their true meaning as laid down in the original source. 

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Truth Hunter (Sticker - Owl Version)

A sticker I have been working on. Inspired by my series on Webtoon.

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