Used with permission: CC, paurian
Who am I?
For that matter, why am I asking you? Really, I didn't mean it rhetorically. Shouldn't I be able to answer the question better than you can?
In an introductory post (see Why do I blog?), I said this blog would be about three types of connections: people to people, people to ideas, and ideas to ideas.
Did I miss one? I think I might have. How many of us are well-connected to ourselves?
The older I get, the less I know who I am, pulled in more directions, increasingly disconnected from who I was.
We are ever on a journey to become ourselves. The question is: do we ever get there?
Watch this video that introduces us to someone who knew exactly who she was:
Can I say with that sort of certainty that I know who I am? Can I tell you, "I'm Jeff?" I think I'm more stuck between "I was Jeff" and "I will be Jeff."
It's the curse of complexity.
In City Slickers, the character Curly taught us that integrity and identity are found in simplicity: Focus on one thing.
What's your one thing? Who are you?
I'm Jeff. At least, I'm pretty sure I'm Jeff.
Stay tuned in case anything changes.
Logging you in...
Katherine · 800 weeks ago
If you have an axe, as the old story goes, and you replace pieces of it over the years, at some point you end up with an axe with no original parts. Is it still your axe? Yes. Is it the same axe you started with? Well, yes and no.
I am not the Katherine I was at 7, or 17, or 27. I will be a slightly differerent Katherine at 37 and 47. But I will still be Katherine. There are some bedrock things that don't change. All the rest is trappings, as open to change as one's clothing. It doesn't mean I don't know myself--after all, I've known many people, and they have all changed and my relationship with them has changed, and my KNOWING of them has changed.
Jeffrey Holton 67p · 799 weeks ago
(On the other hand, I knew Chicago wouldn't be Chicago anymore without Peter Cetera. The new guy they got isn't Peter Cetera, but it still sounds like Chicago. Go figure.)
Anyway, on a serious note, I suppose I was waxing philosophical and esoteric. Your answer is at least as good as Bart Simpson's answer to "What is the sound of one hand clapping?" and perhaps even better (now there's a claim to fame!). I guess the complexity and tension is in the desire for others to be able to find a genuine authenticity, integrity, and reliability in me, while I'm simultaneously aware of flexibility, flux, change, development, and progress.
Who am I? Perhaps for you, I'm blogger Jeff. But I only see myself that way when I'm blogging. In a moment, I'll be changing-the-batteries-in-the-smoke-detector Jeff (thus giving myself the sudden epiphany that I narrowly define myself by what I do).
Maybe I could do this by process of elimination, one out of 7.1 billion at a time. Who am I? Well, I'm not Katherine! There we go. Got one down now. :)
Katherine · 799 weeks ago
Cheryl Lewis · 800 weeks ago
Jeffrey Holton 67p · 799 weeks ago
katdish · 799 weeks ago
Jeffrey Holton 67p · 799 weeks ago
http://jeffreyholton.blogspot.com/2009/12/me-and-...