As we begin the new year and (re)assess our resolutions, we may confront the question: who do I want to become in 2020?  That may seem like a bigger existential question than we may have bargained for on New Year’s Eve. But to what extent does it depend on other questions, no less profoundly existential, that we may be more likely to take for granted; that is: 

How do I know who I am to begin with?  

Do I not sometimes (or regularly) forget important aspects of my life?  

How does what I choose to remember — and to omit -- in the narrative of my self determine my identity?   

How simple is that ubiquitous piece of advice to “just be yourself”? 

And that might lead to some other pressing, difficult questions:

On a broader scale, how does what we choose to commemorate determine our community?  

Must there be some basic level of agreement about which past events and people to honor or dishonor in order to maintain community? 

When, if ever, do societal relationships and reconciliations depend upon a collective responsibility to forget?  

To what extent does the digital age pose new challenges (or opportunities) to forget what should be forgotten and to remember what should be held firm?  

And under what circumstances can and should we harness the new power of technology to recall things about others that prevent them from becoming whom they might aspire to become in 2020?

Join Collegium and Harrison College House for dinner on the next two Wednesday evenings as we reflect together on these questions with the help of brief, provocative texts from the past and present.