Memoirist Patricia Hampl, in her writing “Memory and Imagination,” stated that one who refuses to write about his/her life has no life (34). While generally agreeing with some of the other memoirist views, I believe this statement to be naïve. Specifically, I strongly believe that, just as people develop, grieve, and learn differently, people reflect upon their lives in different manners. Some people may find meditation useful, while others need therapy or an external source to help them organize their thoughts. Personally, I have found that simply reflecting on my life as I lay in bed each night attempting to fall asleep is more than enough to give my life meaning. To simply generalize that a person who does not write memoirs to reflect
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McAdams, who wrote “The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self,” discussed a multitude of different passages on the self. Specifically, McAdams wrote of agency and communion, as central themes in personal myths, and how they resonate as a person’s character. “An especially agentic person is driven by recurrent desires for power and achievement,” (282) where as communal agents are especially driven by love and intimacy (289). Such areas of an agentic person that I am able to relate to include: desiring achievement, taking charge of a situation, assuming responsibility, making a point in an argument, organizing plans/activities, persuading others, and helping others (282). When I state that I have a “need for control,” I am not stating that I manipulate people into taking a position that I hold. Rather, I am insinuating that I like to be in control of myself and not under the control of some extraneous, unpredictable third party. While I do have some other characteristics of a communal person, namely that I am valued as a friend, a caregiver to many, and I am responsible, my agentic characteristics tend to be more dominant in more aspects of my life than do my communal. Furthermore, many of the communal characteristics are not as dominant. These include cherishing love and compassion as ultimate human virtues, having strong beliefs in world peace, human interdependence, and equality over freedom, and being warm, compassionate, gentle, loving, and nurturant (289). That is not to say, however, that any or all of these of not present in my life. I am overly gentle, loving, and nurturant when it comes to child care and fostering kittens, as that is what is appropriate and expected. But, my overall character seems to lean more toward the agentic tendencies that McAdams
McAdams, who wrote “The Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self,” discussed a multitude of different passages on the self. Specifically, McAdams wrote of agency and communion, as central themes in personal myths, and how they resonate as a person’s character. “An especially agentic person is driven by recurrent desires for power and achievement,” (282) where as communal agents are especially driven by love and intimacy (289). Such areas of an agentic person that I am able to relate to include: desiring achievement, taking charge of a situation, assuming responsibility, making a point in an argument, organizing plans/activities, persuading others, and helping others (282). When I state that I have a “need for control,” I am not stating that I manipulate people into taking a position that I hold. Rather, I am insinuating that I like to be in control of myself and not under the control of some extraneous, unpredictable third party. While I do have some other characteristics of a communal person, namely that I am valued as a friend, a caregiver to many, and I am responsible, my agentic characteristics tend to be more dominant in more aspects of my life than do my communal. Furthermore, many of the communal characteristics are not as dominant. These include cherishing love and compassion as ultimate human virtues, having strong beliefs in world peace, human interdependence, and equality over freedom, and being warm, compassionate, gentle, loving, and nurturant (289). That is not to say, however, that any or all of these of not present in my life. I am overly gentle, loving, and nurturant when it comes to child care and fostering kittens, as that is what is appropriate and expected. But, my overall character seems to lean more toward the agentic tendencies that McAdams