A ship changes its planks... Does a human being silently rearrange themselves?

Essam Al-Baqshi * The Ship of Theseus paradox is posed as if it were a simple puzzle... If we replace every part of the ship, piece by piece, does that ship remain the same? But the real question does not float on the water... it dives into us. Ten years ago, you did not have the same thoughts, nor the same fears, nor even the same version of yourself. Your body’s cells changed, your memory rewrote some events, and your convictions fought silent battles, emerging victorious or defeated. So, are you still you? Philosophy does not answer easily; rather, it opens two windows for inquiry. The first window: John Locke tells you that you are you... as long as you remember yourself. Memory is the thread that stitches you together across time. But the problem? Our memory is sometimes a false tailor... it beautifies, conceals, and perhaps even invents. The second window: Heraclitus whispers, “You cannot step into the same river twice.” The river changes... and so do you. As for hobbies... they are not constants, but stations. You may love something at a certain stage because it reflects a deficiency within you, then abandon it when you become whole or when that deficiency changes. Identity is not a definition of you... but a byproduct of your state. Change is not a betrayal of the self... but the self’s way of surviving. We do not move from stability to change; rather, we live the illusion of stability within an unceasing current of change. We cling to our names, our memories, our old images, to convince ourselves that there is “something fixed” inside, while the truth is more poetic and less comfortable... “We are a story being written... not a statue being carved.” Therefore, perhaps the more precise question is not: Am I the same person? But: Which version of myself am I now completing the writing of? *Saudi writer