How do we define a self? As the differentiator: I can’t understand you people. As the reference point: I didn’t see anything. The victim: Why did this happen to me? The perpetrator: I didn’t mean to . . . The self, of course, is the main character of each of our stories—the hero, the martyr, the one whose suffering really matters and whose goodness is remarkable, whose shortcomings are both comprehensible and forgivable. The Bible tells us that the body is a temple, a sanctuary for the soul, a home for the I of every thought. In my house, there are many mansions.
