The Ubiquitous Self

A presumptuous appendage to Walker Percy's Self Help Quiz found in his Lost in the Cosmos

(21) THE UBIQUITOUS SELF: How the Self finds itself in everything, which results either in arrogance, humility, or suicide.

Question: While standing in the grocery store deciding what the best value of toilet paper is to buy, an old college acquaintance comes up to you, shows both surprise and excitement at seeing you, and asks how you are doing. But before you can answer, this friend launches into a rant about the last package of TP she bought and the pros and cons of certain brands. You respond by nodding politely and zoning out while thinking about what kind of cereal to buy next. Then you hear about the ultra-sandy TP her roommate bought and you immediately jump back into the conversation. What drew you back into this acquaintance's toilet paper world?

(a) You are obsessed with finding the most plush TP in order to avoid a sandy rub.

(b) You are environmentally conscientious and you know that sandy TP has been proven by muskrats in Ohio to be harmful to creek beds, and so you feel it is your responsibility to share this fact with your friend.

(c) You know that either you join in the conversation now and try to wrap it up or you will never get to your Honey Nut Cheerios.

(d) Human beings are only interested in that in which they see themselves, and if you wait long enough, you will see yourself in everything. At the store, you could relate to your friend's sandy plight because your roommate recently subjected you to the same thing. And so, because you could see yourself in her story, you were immediately hooked.

(CHECK ONE)

Thought Experiment: Think about anything. Then decide why you are thinking about it. What's its relevance to you? How did the thought come to you and thus how did you come to enter into the thought? In some way the self is not only in your thoughts, but in the object of your thoughts. Now think about something else. Once again, did you find the self in the thought and in the thing? Now try to look at something, listen to something, feel something, anything. Were you able to do so while leaving the self behind?


Regardless of what you answered to the multiple choice question above, the self was embedded into your friend's TP tales because one's self is ubiquitous to itself. This can be a horribly depressing thought if you are one who does not want your self to be disseminated unto the ends of the earth (or at least the ones you venture into). Or it can be a revelation that results in hubris because you are drunk with the possibilities of perpetuating yourself. Or it may make you feel utterly insignificant because you are only one part of a million zillion other parts and have no particular claim on anything for what is not rare is not special. Or it can make anything interesting to you because with a little reflection, you will discover that you should have a vested interest in everything.

Thought Experiment (II): Try to find some theological truths that support the ubiquitous self. Think about how the ubiquitous self might/might not support some theological truths. Think about how this idea might become heresy. Now think about what your most successful toilet paper purchase has been and write it down so that next time you go to the store you will know exactly what to buy.