Personally I think my most stable sense of identity comes from wanting to remain the caring person I was as a kid. I remember vividly the first time I heard a news clip about the genocide in Darfur and wondering how all of the adults around me seemed so at ease. Adults are supposed to be the doers in the world, why weren’t they doing anything? Why didn’t they seam upset? I think trying my best to avoid the complacency I saw in them has played a large role in my sense of self.
I don’t love that this is a negative position (a struggle not to be something I don’t admire rather than to be something I admire)
Philosophy. Me, without my worldview and values, is just an empty shell. The smiling public mask without anything behind it.
I find I have little use defining myself to myself. I am. I am lots of things. I have no box, and that doesn’t frighten me. If others need to fit me into a box so they can find my place in their personal classification system that helps them feel less or more at odds with the world, that’s okay. Sometimes annoying, but okay.
Sure I have a nature that I’ve discovered over time, some of which I nurture and some of which I try to rectify. But I still don’t feel that it’s a solid identity, but rather maybe a concept.
Yeah, I’m ME. That about covers it for me.
I think the writers on Ted Lasso got it pitch perfect with Jamie saying “Why would I want to be anything else, I’m me.”
So you never find yourself being someone you don’t want to be? You never have regrets that lead you to want to make changes?
Do I wish I mined bitcoin when it was cheap and easy? Or bought Apple stock just before the first iPhone? Or just not stuck my dick in the crazy? Sure I wish I knew then what I know but that’s just the road not taken.
Have I fucked shit up and hurt people I wish I hadn’t? Of course I’m human, but each mistake that broke me also made me put myself back together and I like to think that like a piece of Kitsuni art the remade pieces of me are better then they were before.
But maybe I’m an optimist and like to think that everyone is a work in progress and most choose to be better as they go along, including myself.
Stable? Go for biology, you and I are living creatures and that’s not going to change any time soon. Appreciate the wonder of being alive, respect your needs and wants. Your mind and body are bafflingly complex but will be your lifelong home and companion. Consider that most/all nonhuman living things just live their life and never ponder things like this. Treat yourself and others around you well and enjoy the life you have.
