Sunday, February 5, 2012

Identity

You have an identity. In fact, you have probably several identities. You may be a mother, a capable secretary and a grouch.

Maybe you are a monk, with a robe and a set of beliefs. Maybe you are a Buddhist monk, a Catholic monk or a sanyassin.

Maybe you are an intellectual snob or a drunkard. Maybe you are a drug addict.

Maybe you decide to change your identity. Maybe you decide to change your name to a Hindu name to make you appear more spiritual or maybe you return to your parent’s conservative ways after a juvenile revolutionary excursion.

Maybe you are a spiritual searcher or an environmental activist. Maybe you are artistic. Maybe you prefer to hang out with the neo-Nazis. Maybe you feel at home there with them.

Is it possible to live without any particular identity? What do you think? I think it is possible. Others may give me an identity but I don’t feel that I need one, at least not when I’m here, all alone by myself. In my age is identity not that important anymore.

I don’t mind if you play the cool Rastaman or the stiff investment banker. It’s not a big deal for me. I don’t mind if you play a monk or a bohemian artist. To me it is much more important if I can trust you, if we can talk and understand each other.

To some people it is extremely painful to abandon their identity. The Nazis had to drop their Nazi identity after the war. People who have spent years in religious cults or those who want to give up their drug habit know what I’m talking about.

It is very difficult to give up an identity, before you try, but it is possible-and it is very liberating.