For a long time I’ve resented my inability to remember, ie. if I do not take notes, my life does not exist — but I understand simply now, thanks to Hass, that this is a gift too: that one is able to pass their world through the “cloud chamber” of language, such that it emerges on the other side “charged with desire”.
That is to say: the note-taking is not a substitute for memory. The note-taking is an act of transformation. More than life itself, it is the singular thing that ties me, us, you & I, to our compulsion to live.
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Our desires are distinct because we name them.