As I mull over the question, "Who am I?", it seems to me important to remember what was important to me when I was young. I remember sticking up for littler kids. I remember helping other kids with their schoolwork. I remember asking my mom (dad was overseas, it was WWII time) for chores. I remember helping other kids I knew do their chores. So. . . maybe part of "who I am" is a person who likes to help people. Whether it's hardwired into my identity or something I learned, it seems to define a lot of my life.
So, as you retire, or prepare for retirement, or simply work on your own answer to the question of your own self, your personal identity, think about what you liked when you were young. It might help you figure out who you are now, especially if your life as an adult seems to have been characterized by that early impulse.
What do you think? What are you learning? Leave a comment and let us know.
Sunday, May 25, 2014
Saturday, May 17, 2014
Who Am I? - Part One
We are all, at times, nudged to "be who you are", to "discover your true self", and many to cultivate, at least in retirement, the self to which one aspires. Tricky.
Suppose you are not one of those people who KNEW, at age 5, 6, or 7, you wanted to be a doctor, fireman or whatever. Suppose, in fact, you are one of us who do not identify your identity with a job or vocation. Suppose that, like so many of us, you don't have a clue what the answer to "Who am I?" is.
Relating to one's self is not easy work. Figuring out WHO one's self is is as hard as figuring out who some other self is.
Who is he?
Well, that's Fred. And that person, over there, is John.
OK. You have a name. Do you have a sense of that person't self? Probably not. If you know your own name you know that there is more to you than your name.
Who is he? Who is she?
He's a logger. She's a nurse.
Great to know if you need trees cut and hauled, or expert medical care, but. . . who is he? who is she?
"What in blue blazes do you mean by that question?" you ask.
I answer, "What I mean and what you mean changes with each time the question is asked.
We might mean, "Is she nice?" "Is he competent?" "Is he a veteran?" "Does she face divorce?"
Or we might mean, "What is the essence of her identity, the foundational truth of his life?"
What comes to your mind when you ask the question, "Who am I?" What kind of answer, today, might you give yourself or someone who asks?
Leave a comment and let us know.
Suppose you are not one of those people who KNEW, at age 5, 6, or 7, you wanted to be a doctor, fireman or whatever. Suppose, in fact, you are one of us who do not identify your identity with a job or vocation. Suppose that, like so many of us, you don't have a clue what the answer to "Who am I?" is.
Relating to one's self is not easy work. Figuring out WHO one's self is is as hard as figuring out who some other self is.
Who is he?
Well, that's Fred. And that person, over there, is John.
OK. You have a name. Do you have a sense of that person't self? Probably not. If you know your own name you know that there is more to you than your name.
Who is he? Who is she?
He's a logger. She's a nurse.
Great to know if you need trees cut and hauled, or expert medical care, but. . . who is he? who is she?
"What in blue blazes do you mean by that question?" you ask.
I answer, "What I mean and what you mean changes with each time the question is asked.
We might mean, "Is she nice?" "Is he competent?" "Is he a veteran?" "Does she face divorce?"
Or we might mean, "What is the essence of her identity, the foundational truth of his life?"
What comes to your mind when you ask the question, "Who am I?" What kind of answer, today, might you give yourself or someone who asks?
Leave a comment and let us know.
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