The I as a Fish Enlivened and Upstream.

An individual is made up of one's many encounters with others. The relationships gained throughout life are not a slicing away of individuality, but a sprouting out of branches and the ability to grow and flower. Through them one may gain strength and stretch higher.

There is a chronological flow to this. Connections are first gained through your parents and your other family members, whose own individual traits are added to yours, however few there are. Perhaps at first there is a near-blankness, but even that is still allowed as some characteristic of an individual. And when you leave your house, as time passes and relationships connect, your sense of self expands to the point where you are enabled to share that selfhood and strengthen it through a blending with others.

Relationships flow upwards like vines skyward, the more gained, the better one's self, one's house and bare brick, is covered by soft leaves. The value of an individual is stagnated when cut away from others. It is increased when engaged.