Few of us take pride in how our pancreas produces chymotrypsin or the trigeminal nerve network facilitates a sneeze. We don’t feel a vested interest in our autonomic processes. If I’m asked who I am, I turn to the thoughts, sensations, and memories that I can access with my mind’s eye or interrogate with my inner voice. Everyone’s pancreas synthesizes chymotrypsin and everyone sneezes but, I like to imagine, there’s something deeply, fully, and intrinsically me in what I think, in what I feel, in what I do.
