I’ve always been intrigued by stories of people who have ”vanished” or walked away from their life. Did they start a new life, new identity and change their stripes? Or do they kill themselves with an old clothes hanger after a week being in a new town completely and utterly alone. Is it possible they left their old life, and all the baggage from it behind and found happiness in their new life. Maybe for 6 months they found freedom, but quickly realized change takes a lot more than relocating to a new zip code. Then they commit suicide with an old 84 Buick in the garage. Or is it possible, they realized with the change of address, they also had to change how they thought about themselves and took on a different outlook on life. Can we escape who and what we are, or is it hard wired in and we’re fools for thinking things could be different or better. Does happiness start from within, or does it start with a bottle of gin.
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I’ve wondered the same thing.
I could legally change my name to David Monday, scrap the phone number I’ve had for 15 years, stop talking to all friends and family, move far away, find a new line of work and forge a new identity.
The thing is, I’d still be me.
No matter what you do to re-invent yourself, you’re still gonna be you. The underlying causes that motivated you to “become someone else” will still be there.
If I thought that changing those things would make me happy, I wouldn’t be here. No… the reasons I don’t want to live are things that make me fundamentally me, things I can’t change. So I agree with Morris.