You were never an individual since you emerged through participation and every way by which you chose form was in participation. Developing an identity is a desideratum of participation, as is, in certain contexts, the idea of individuality itself. And yet it is also true that you are irredeemably alone, that participation falls inescapably upon the alone. And while your aloneness cannot be touched this side of death, it plays an essential role in every relation and interaction.