Theme

Theme: A self is built through irreversible commitment. Avoiding commitment — staying in the realm of infinite potential — is a slow self-erasure.

Antithesis: Relief is real. Removing pain can feel like freedom. Sometimes it might even be better — for a moment, for some people, in the short term. But it hollows the self over time.

A self is built through irreversible commitment.

Avoiding commitment is slow self-erasure.

Memory is the record of the self.