I wonder if even Banach believes himself to be free.

After describing at length the Existentialist's "island of subjectivity" we are to assume that our very nature is to be free, to exist separately from the rest of the world. Now, just as a man sick with Alzheimers, Banach is quick to go back on his words and tell us we aren't really all that free.

Crap.

Thing is, I can see his point. While we are naturally inclined to be mentally free, we all, as humans, attempt to confine our nature to what we are idnetified as. Bear with me, as I myself am not altogether so certain of my interpretation. It appears that Banach is telling us that while mentally we are inclined to be free, we limit ourselves by basing perceptions of ourself on outside influences, i.e. pictures, descriptions, other people. It seems as though Banach is convinced that we have the idea that whatever we are made out to be by other people is how we seem to lean when describing ourselves. Banach tells us that we have a mental tv screen through which we view ourselves, a control booth of sorts where we can make our connections about who we are, develop our realities. SO! It makes sense when he says "the self feels a tension between identifying itself with the mind's eye...and the images that appear as partof our experience" as we engage them in the world.

Woah.

Layman's terms being that we have a mental image of ourself that we percieve through experience, a mentality that often conflicts with the physical image as it interacts with the world. The physical self vs. the mental self, with the mental self quizzically cocking its eye when presented with a conflicting image of the physical.

Here! Examples from the horse's mouth. Banach relates to us how we try to excuse our actions by pretending we are simply bodies that yield "to the forces thatdetermine them". Examples he provides are when we try to excuse ourselves for acting rashly due to a third-party factor that is beyond control. He seems to say we fold when presented with an uncontrollable variable, we give up what our mentality says is natural, claiming it is the fault of some figurative drug.

Perfect segue - 200 points. Banach continues, telling us that regardless of how unchangable the circumstance, it is entirely under our control to manipulate how it affects us. It's all relative, based on perspective. If you decide that your circumstance is one thing, that it affects you one way, then, well, that's what it is, and it can be anything. This is where, as humans, we expand and grow. Learning to control our perspective view will allow us to take value and knowledge from what might otherwise be horrible, dire issues.

In this, life is like a blank puzzle. We need to assemble all the pieces, sure, and it might be difficult with no instructions to go on, no box art to guide us, but in the end, we still get to choose what gets drawn on the final product. Call me silly, but my puzzle is going to be so weird, so random, that people will wonder how I ever put it together. And here is where I can almost agree with Banach, that people are incapable of seeing us make the puzzle, that they can only admire the pretty picture in the end, and never really gather the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it's construction. It takes a truly trained mind to see the cracks where the pieces fit together, how they form a complete, albeit haphazard, materpiece.