Rabbi Zuska said that on the Day of Judgement God would ask him not why he had not been Moses, but why he had not been Zuska.
Walter Kaufmann
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Here's another look at the troublesome business of being true to yourself. The first step, even before you decide how important it is, is to understand who you are. Who is this person you are attempting to be true to? The answer to that question seems to take a life time to find. Even the search for the answer can be an elusive thing. How can a creature with the size, scope and dimensions of a human being be so difficult to see? So you start small, with one mere tid bit of information and that leads you to another one and another one after that, until you find yourself in a dilemma that resembles trying to count the leaves on a large tree.
"Okay, so I'm a very complex creature. How am I supposed to understand all of me?"
As you get older and wiser you start measuring things, comparing this tid bit of information about yourself with that tid bit to determine which is more important. Then you discover that they are all interrelated somehow. Now it's even more confusing than it was before.
"This is too complicated for me. I'm going to be someone else. Then I won't have to deal with it."
Who?
"I don't know. I always wanted to be a cowboy, so maybe I'll buy some boots, a big hat, a guitar and tell everyone I'm from Texas. I may even change my name just to make sure."
Okay, Tex. It sounds good. But how are you going to convince another cowboy?
"Oh, I hadn't thought of that."
Why not paint your face green and tell them you're from Mars? It isn't likely you'll meet another Martian to challenge you.
"You think that would work?"
No, So now you take yourself off to a professional to tell you who you are. But he doesn't know who you are. He wants you to discover it on your own while he charges money to listen.
"I'll just pick out the best person I know and be like him."
Okay. But do you really know who he is? Do you think he really knows who he is? And if you know who he is, about whom you know less than you know about yourself, than why don't you know yourself?
"You're making this very difficult for me."
I said it was difficult way back in the first paragraph. Why don't you just try being yourself? I think you're a great guy. I like who you are.
"Really?'
Yes.
"Who am I?"
(Vagabond Journeys)
6 comments:
Hi, Happy Solstice. Interesting post but hard to think so deep this close to Chritmas. My father used to smoke a pipe with Half and Half Perfecto..it was an easy Christmas gift when I was a kid. Or was it the cigars that were Perfecto, hmmm.
Ha ha! Nope, no one is going to tell you who you are, and if they do, I wouldn't trust them anyway!
You just gave me something to think about. I always tell people to be true to themselves.
we also have to know who we are in the sight of God for those who believe in the one true God; often if we just grasp who we are to him, it would save us from the countless other searches of trying to figure out who we are
betty
I hope you are in a decent mood, because your thought provoking entries can be seen in different ways, all leading back to you.
They appear insightful, and going down a pleasant path. But as I am experimenting with the thought of being single, I also recall there is a fine line where 'single' becomes 'alone'.
There are others who deal with similiar questions, and some find useful answers, and other don't. I always warn myself of falling like Alice down a endless, sprialing descent of a rabbit hole.
Cool to be introspective. Make sure you tie yourself off, and double check it before you go down the hole.
Trying to be someone else?? Well been there and done that.. and it just comes to the point of where it is too hard, it doesn't work, and if you have to be someone else to impress someone, then you don't need to have them in your life. Why do we always think we have to do something amazing, or awsome to be noticed or liked? Took me a long time to realize it, but now I have peace, even tho I am single and doubt I will ever remarry. I am happy with myself and my accomplishments, and the friends who like me for me.
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