The End of Memory #2

“The greater the wrong suffered, the more it gets ingrained into the identity of the person who endured it. Such a person sometimes comes to view himself-and others also come to view him-primarily as a sufferer of that particular wrong, for example, as a “survivor of the Rwandan genocide”. It is as though the wrong suffered is the most defining event of his life-an event that trumps creative accomplishments, friendships, joyful events, whether old or new, and all else. When wrongdoing defines us, we take on “distorted identities, frozen in time and closed to growth.” Pg. 79 - Miroslav Volf

I would even say that when we hold on to how we have victimized others in the past (regretfully) we are also distorting our identity and closed from growth. I would also add being victims to wrongdoings such as addictions. When our identity is wrapped up in, "I'm an alcoholic" I think something has gone terribly wrong. When a personal identity is wrapped up in a disease, addiction, behavior, etc. there is a rejection (conscious or otherwise) of the identity as a "beloved of God".

Volf does a good job in the book of talking how we should "remember rightly". For example, the Israelites could have formed their identity around their suffering in Egypt but instead their identity was formed around God redeeming them from Egypt. There is a large difference in how they remembered. Because they remembered themselves as being redeemed by God rather than enslaved by Egypt, they were able to live and grow.