Introduction

You have a question.

You are puzzled. The answer matters. You have a stake in it.

Then something changes.

The question no longer matters.

Perhaps it was answered.

Perhaps other concerns displaced it.

Perhaps it simply lost its grip.

The question still exists in some abstract sense. But it is no longer your question. It no longer participates in your orientation. It leaves you cold.

This is the sense of disappearance used throughout this essay.

Questions and convictions disappear when they cease to participate in a person's orientation.

They disappear for that person.

The person does not have this question at that moment.

Persistence, accordingly, refers to questions and convictions that remain present, return repeatedly, or continue shaping experience over time.

Some convictions disappear quickly.

Others remain for years.

A passing enthusiasm fades after a week. A childhood fear survives into adulthood. A political conviction dissolves after a single conversation. Another survives decades of criticism.

Questions behave similarly.

Many disappear once answered.

Others return repeatedly.

Still others accompany a person for much of a lifetime, surviving changing circumstances, changing answers, and sometimes even changing identities.

How does that happen?

What allows certain convictions and questions to persist while others vanish?