So maybe it was a really long drive ...

and it should be 'Thoughts When Driving My (Spouse's) Car:

Somewhere in Kurt Vonnegut’s novels, he talks about the Tralfamadorian view of the nature of people. He pretty much explains that a person isn’t simply as he appears to us, but rather a composite of those who came before and after the existence of that person.

Because I’m human, I do not understand nor subscribe to the concept of the Tralfamadorian concept of time, that is I do not accept the influence of future beings upon my existence. However, I do acknowledge the concept that we are composites of those who came before us, tempered by the ongoing wave of sophistication of society. In this way, we are not just ourselves; but both our current incarnation of consciousness, as well as psychological and sociological essence of those before us.

And to go further: It’s not just our ancestors that make up a part of us: Our friends also are an important to this metaphysical being, as well as our peer relatives. Hence, I do not exist only as myself, but also as a part of my siblings, parents and children. It’s almost the same concept as something like a tree: a collection of cells, mutual life, that choose to exist in harmony. The individual cells do not make up the tree; only their collection via cooperation.

This is not just a casual agreement of existence. The real force that ties our ‘individual’ self with our ‘extended metaphysical self’ is but a simple component: Love. We are not just physical representations of our flesh, but rather a composite of those which we have bonded in love.

So if you happen to meet me in a party on the coast, you wouldn’t just be meeting me: you would be meeting my entire being, made up of myself, and those who love me. It is not necessarily a romantic love, but also a brotherly love, and a friendship love. I am not just the flesh and simple psyche before you--I am but a component in a larger social organism.

It gets even more complex then this … imagine, for example, if I also try to explain that the emotion of hate is simply another shade of love … but I will leave that argument for a later time. The gist of this argument is thus: we are not simple individuals standing alone in time; we are components in a much larger organism.