Nathan K. Hensley’s talk last week got me thinking about the influence of the past on every aspect of modern life and personality. I was particularly motivated by Hensley’s comment that we, as humans, “are the past” in that our physical bodies and personalities are developed as a response to past events, past people, and past ideas. Our minds and memories are inspired and formed by previously created literary conventions. Our modern moment is inherently motivated and shaped by a moment prior. Everything that we think or say at any moment is participation in this convention that is arguably created for us. We therefore have an undeniable dynamic and material connection to the past. These ideas which Hensley was arguing have put my mind in a questioning state. I am now wondering whether any thought can even truly be organic and original if all thought is adapted and generated as a response to a previously heard or read sentence. Is originality impossible? Hensley noted that all thoughts and ideas are simple reorganized or re-worded thoughts and ideas that have already existed somewhere in the world. Are humans really incapable of waking up one morning and developing an entirely independent and organic idea? I personally find it terrifying that our minds are naturally plastic and adaptable by anything and everything we are exposed to in our culture. How can we expect to experience such radical change as a culture if we are always motivated by our past?