"hey, remember when..." insert blank face

what does a person do when they have no recollection of their previous self or identity? is one the same or different? who are we really? what makes us who we are? crazy questions to see played out in 'real life.'

unkown white male chronicles a man who finds himself on a train in NYC, with no idea who he was/is. this true story follows him as he pieces his life back together.

the "unknown white male" as he was dubbed at the hospital comes to understand that his name is doug. the person he once was seems to have drifted away and he has little desire to find the "old doug" again. friends? family? he knows he's related to his family, but there are no memories of them. finding out his mom has died comes a shock, accompanied by tears. as for his friends, when the semantic field of 'friendship' (ie - the various quotes, inside jokes, commonalities that build up over the years) is taken away, are you still friends? doug's life-altering memory loss created a radically different person than who he had been before. his old friends and family didn't see the "old doug" and he didn't remember anything that made them his best friends. surreal.

the movie made me think about many topics, not the least of which was/is - spiritual identity (not explored in the movie). what would my 'spirituality' be like if i didn't remember that "personal confession" from my baptist upbringing? or that time on the beach worshipping with the moon? or that summer when i learned joy in Christ wins over depression? if my identity (which i couldn't remember) is in Christ, would i still be a child of God? yes, i believe i would. but would i know or understand what that meant? or - would i get a fresh look at all religions and be forced to re-evaluate since i wouldn't remember the hardships and grace that brought me to God in the first place. or would it be simple and my Christlikeness would be an inseperable part of me? crazy. either way, my life would change dramatically. 'salvation' becomes a much bigger process than a simple confession. truly a lived experience that had better mean as much now as it did for the 'old sean.' perhaps that is where we're supposed to live, finding the same God fresh and new everyday, always willing to cast off our old selves, for him. but that wouldn't change the question...

"If I could wake up in a different place, at a different time, could I wake up as a different person?" ~Chuck Palahniuk