In the movie Fight Club, Tyler asks the narrator, “How much can you know about yourself, you've never been in a fight?”  This question reminded me of a Firefly quote from the episode “War Stories.”  In this episode, Shepherd Book is talking to Simon about a dictator named Shan Yu.  Book quotes Shan Yu as saying, "Live with a man 40 years. Share his house, his meals. Speak on every subject. Then tie him up, and hold him over the volcano's edge. And on that day, you will finally meet the man."   

So I ask myself: When do we really meet our true selves? How do we know we’ve done so?  And is it different when we are trying to meet someone else?  Do we meet ourselves when we’re in a fight? When we’re hanging over a volcano, about to die?  Or can we meet our true selves when we are kind to others? When we work to decrease world suck and increase awesome?

Fight Club’s narrator lives in a haze of insomnia.  He is alive, but not living.  When he gets into a fight, his inner self, Tyler, comes out.  (As I understand it, Tyler is Jack’s “imaginary friend” who says and does all the things Jack wishes he could do.  I could be wrong here, though, as I haven’t seen the end of the movie.)  So when we have a surge of adrenalin, as when we are in a life-or-death situation like hanging over a volcano, our true selves come out.