This blog is quickly becoming an outlet for discussion verses the poetic journey I envisioned.
I find myself thinking about identity. This world is rapidly becoming a myriad of adjectives. People describing themselves. Honestly, does it matter? We use our identity to fulfill our desired goals. Thinking about it, a person engrossed in the career path, they see themselves as good as their job. Work is good, they are good, therefore they identify as a successful person. Even someone who says they are a woman, well as a woman I am only as good as my title. Feminine, respectful, married, single, parent… all those things describe and give value to the description. Therefore, identifying within myself my goal.
What we are, is what we do. How we classify our daily lives gives us a purposeful meaning. I guarantee if I spoke to the stranger at the next table, with the first few minutes of conversation, the topic of what one does for a living will come up.
Just for a moment, ask yourself- how do you describe yourself? It is like the classifications of living things from Biology that I taught my kids. To know someone, we need to go down the list- Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, species.
Well, we are human – most of us. I first tell everyone I am a mom. It is how I see myself. It is what I do. Many little subtitles come with the job description. People ask what I do. ” I’m a mom”, ” No-what is your job?” response- “I am a mom.” “No what do you do for a living??” ” I am a MOM”.
I am a mammal, female, woman, mom, single parent, yeah so I am not the best teaching the classifications of living things, let alone describing them myself. One gets the jist. I will try that again- I am a woman, beautiful inside and out, sensitive, deep, philosophical, respectful, teacher, mom, tired, loving, loyal, thinker, aspiring writer and so on.
Does it matter what my adjectives are to others? Only if one wants to know me, finds interest in me. My identity is my own. It allows me to see the world in a unique way. If society could just realize it does not need to be told or discovered what one is or not, we could finally quiet the speeches and just accept we are all humans, with our own unique view, each with knowledge to help this world go round.
Journey with me 