Who Am I, Who Are You, What Are We?
Who am I? Who are you? What are We?
When we awaken from the stupor of babyhood, childhood and further, at least some of us begin to appreciate that we present an image to the people around us. People around us can’t help but form a picture of who we are. We perceive that our parents have a particular view of us. If we have siblings, we can’t avoid being compared to them. And we ourselves begin to form an image of our parents, our family members, the community in which we have been raised, and finally, even ourselves. And, over time, we begin to have an idea, and understand, how we, the totality of who and what we are, are viewed by the external world.
We begin to realize that what we are really like can be very different from how others view us. It may not necessarily be a picture we like. We may find we are viewed through the prism of a stereotype related to where we come from, parents, siblings, family or community. We may choose to embrace that stereotype, or determine to forge one totally of our own making. Or we may be wholly unconscious of the issue until circumstance forces us to confront it.
If we are conscious of our situation in this respect, at least some of us will be making decisions regarding the alternative courses of action we might follow. Under the tutelage of parents or family, or in rebellion, we may choose either an acceptance of our stereotype, or we may resolve to launch a focused effort to markedly change the brand we are representing to ourselves and our publics. How fierce, how all-consuming, that drive can be in changing the nature of our lives. That, truly, can be the story of who and what we are.
If we are poor, we may set out to become rich. If our family is rich and prestigious, we may set out to become richer and famous in our own right. We may follow the paths our parents or family have forged. If our parents are uneducated, we make seek higher education, or a trade, to change our personal destiny. We try to learn things so we can improve our prospects. We may seek our fortunes in another place, despairing of our environments. We will be seeking to improve our brand. At least, most of us , not content with the cards we have drawn from the deck of life, may try to change the deal. Or not.
Sooner or later we will be forced to make a reckoning of where we are and where we are going. In one way or another we will be appreciating what our brand represents to ourselves and the outside world. In our younger years, we may be continually striving toward achieving an image of ourselves that we find valuable. We will be seeking to identify the steps within our power to take to achieve our goals.
On the way we may find the need to make course corrections. Or the struggle may appear so difficult for us that we may decide to be content to remain where we stand. The challenge is always to identify the reality rather than accepting views that speak to our personal hopes and wishes. Realities can be so painful that we foster lies to ourselves that are gentler on the ego. We may want to be what we imagine rather than what we truly are. Of course, some of us just give and say and act like we really don’t care. But we mostly do. We really do!
In our lives we live through the kaleidoscope of what we were, what we strive to be, and what, in the end, we essentially prove to be. There are bound to be physical, psychological, environmental, (in the total sense,) limits that will tend to hem in the range of possibilities that are open to us. We may rage at the limitations we perceive. That struggle may consume our lives. Some of us may, indeed, break through boundaries and barriers that many of us have accepted as immutable. (There is nothing like an indomitable will that alters reality.) More power to them!
In the end, if we are fortunate, we may arrive at a state where we can draw our satisfactions from the places at which we have arrived. We may see in what we have done, what we are in the now, someone that offers the world a brand of which we can be proud. It may be enough that we know our own worth without a care as to how others may view us. It would be icing on the cake that there are some who see us as something like the person we believe we are. It would be nice if we had the respect of our children, our siblings, our neighbors. But, most of all, it would be great if, in the end, we were proud of ourselves, if we were proud of our brand.
What’s Happening At Your House?