📑 · 11 answers · 1mo
apr. 23 '26 — 1 week! (see note)
hello all. I have news!
It is time for some Philosophy 101 Nonsense!
Do you see yourself as ever-changing? Whether you do or not, do you like the way you view yourself in this regard?
Heraclitus famously says "you cannot step twice into the same river". Meaning, as one could assume, the River is ever-changing, and life is about flow, and change.
Although, in reality, this is Plato's quoting. What Heraclitus actually said—"On those stepping into rivers staying the same other and other waters flow."—carries a bit of a different meaning.
Plato had said Heraclitus claims "all things change, and nothing stays". This adds up, reading Plato's misquote of his, but not so much with Heraclitus' actual word.
The point is clearer. It is not that all changes and nothing stays, but that the change of the "waters flow" is what keeps the river "staying the same". The river you step into is changing, yes, but it is in its nature, for it would not be a river without the changing water.
At least this is what I believe. Now, if you cared to read all of that, in addition to the original question, I ask: which way do you prefer thinking about it? (the world, or identity?) Would you prefer to think of the universal flux, all changing, or in the familiarity of change?
Note: It's been one week since i started asking stuff again. I'm not too big on milestones, but i figured a bit of self indulging is FINE. after all, um...who cares!
I had to redo this answer because I got a bit too rambly and it disrupted my train of thought #OopsieDaisy. I'm not even sure if this is coherent.
So I can (sort of) get back on track, the short answer is: Yeah, I think I am ever-changing and we all are, and even our Universe. Change is the one single constant that doesn't change and I like that paradox. I also like that this question is also a bit related to the last one #Nice.
This question also reminded me of the song "Everything Stays" from Adventure Time. Some of the lyrics go like: "Everything stays right where you left it // Everything stays but it still changes // Ever so slightly // Daily and nightly // In little ways where(?) everything stays". Pardon me if the lyrics are a bit wrong. The show itself has a lot of things related to change, in my opinion, as well as eras that the main characters would never truly get to know.
The world is made up of memories, well to me. I mean, the stars in the night sky can just be the light of a star miles away that has already died. Is that not witnessing a memory? And new memories get made, from nothingness that turn into something(?)ness(?). The world is made up of little nothings that are structured together to become something and I think memories work that way too.
These nothings shift and move, changing structures, or even the nothingness itself changes and thus the structure changes (even if it's a tiny bit of nothing). I like the words you can combine to talk about change, or describe the Universe. I like to think that people are like Universes themselves, just miniature versions. Wow this is Long. Did I even make a point? I actually can't tell, my head got jumbled up. It happens, #Don'tWorry.
I'll stop it here. 😁
