What you present here is true and profound.

Being a person who strives for universality by living intersectionally within several different boxes . . . Christian, intellectual, and working-man, I find your analysis here very helpful.

I snipped out one phrase of yours that is especially meaningful: "we don’t know our narratives are limiting our view; they’re like water to a fish."

Much can be said, and written, about this scenario, and the dynamics in and around it, but I will satisfy my commentary inclinations with this one offering:

In the "box"of a truly loving marriage, these features pertaining to personal identity can be transcended by the miracle of love. My wife and I have been happily married for 40 years, with three grown children. Our life, in communal association with a church of Christians, has been fruitful and joyful. About a dozen years ago, however, my intellectual horizons began to expand. My wife, on the other hand has not broadened her contemplative horizons nearly as much as I have.

Even so, there is no problem when true love is present. I see the boxes that she inhabits, while I have expanded my intellectual horizons. And here's the clincher:

My love for her compels me to protect the boxes that she inhabits, because they are love boxes pertaining to family and friends, and they work for her, and my protection of her and her life gives me purpose and fulfillment.

One more thing.. . she stabilizes, protects and saves lives as a CCRN in our local ICU, which is something I could never do, although I have written four novels and 900 blogs, and lately . . . a few comments on Medium, which is quite satisfactory in its own write.