how many of our habits are our own? before we begin to bite our nails or reapply lipstick or clear our throats before we speak, have we watched someone else perform these things habitually? do we select our favorite things (foods, vacation spots, sex positions even) because someone we admire told us about how wonderful that thing was? how did you learn to like dark, heavy coffee? why have you chosen to wear neutrals instead of colors? where did you learn to smoke a cigarette after sex, why that brand, why do you inhale like that?

alone, perhaps, boiled down into selfness by expansive periods of loneliness, we are closer to becoming individuals; but even then, we will be so afflicted by memories (of faces, of habits, of favorite things) that we will still enact and embrace others' desires and actions.