Country Roads

After much thought on episodic memory and how it affects our psychological identification, I have come to the conclusion that memory determines everything known and unknown about us, thus forming our identity. Memory has altered my past decisions, and will alter those that I have yet to make. It forces my hand, both consciously and subconsciously, as I make my choices about how I conduct myself in life. I am my identity and my memory. That is not to say that memory and identity are one and the same, but the two walk hand in hand, as one is who, the other, why. They are forever bonded together, neither able to exist without the other.
I am a West Virginian, though I was not born there and have lived in two other places longer. I was born in Texas and there I spent the formative first 13 years of my life. I lived in Kentucky for another 10. Only 6 short years was I blessed enough to call West By God Virginia my home. You may wonder why I feel such a strong connection to a place I did not inhabit for long, and I wondered the same thing for a long while. I struggled with my own identity, not wanting to relate to the Appalachian way of things. I would go hiking through the gorges, unaware that the mountain state was helping create my identity.
The first time I really listened to Country Roads by the late, great John Denver (who is a saint, mind you); I knew why I loved the place so. The romantic ideals of ancient mountains and timeless rivers calling me home were too much for my heart to bear. That’s not to say that time has not been very good to my memories. The state is actually in shambles as it has one of the highest adult illiteracy and teen pregnancy rates in the entire union, but my memories of it are without fault. The time I had spent there and the memories I had created through my experiences had etched a new sense of self over the old me. How I identify myself to others had been changed by my memories. Through this change, my eyes were opened to the fact that identity is a dynamic process. The philosopher Heraclitus famously said, “You cannot step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.” The same holds true for identity. Every second of every day new memories are flowing into your mind, and in making these new memories, we are forging a new identity from moment to moment. The fact that I hold an identity of myself that should not be, is proof positive enough for me to know that our identity evolves by our memory and shows that they are hopelessly entwined. Thank you John Denver, you helped define my identity by giving me a memory.
Michael R. 005