It’s while it’s being alive that life is immortal, while it’s still alive.*
Marguerite Duras

Sufis speak of their nafs, or the false self that takes the place of the soul. Somewhat more complicated than the concept of the ego, the nafs refers to all that in ourselves which has become an object for others or for ourselves. It is our visible self, the tangible, public aspect of a personality.**
James Carse

We will not succumb to the Matrix,
Life is too precious to live behind some prosopon
worn to ourselves and others, nor
will be force others to be less than they can be:
May each of us be unexpected.

*Maria Popova’s The Marginalian blog: The Backdoor to Immortality: Marguerite Duras on What Makes Life Worth Living in the Face of Death;
**James Carse’s Breakfast at the Victory.