Fragilitate

This is also to say that the stable worlds in which we seem to live are

quite fragile. In our daily relationships we encounter only partial

persons, fragments that we mistakenly presume to be whole personalities.

Stability and coherence are generated in our local agreements.

But these agreements are not binding, and disruptions can occur at

any moment. I am not proposing that social life is thus a grand

charade, in which we are all wearing masks to suit the occasion. The

metaphor of the mask is misleading, as it suggests there is a ‘real self ’

to be revealed behind the guise. For the multi-being, there is no inside

vs. outside; there is only continuous participation in relationship. Any

moment of compelling authenticity may give way to a sense of

compromise.

(Kenneth Gergen)