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Page 2 of 5
WHO ARE YOU ?
Who
are you? I am a carpenter; I am the father of four children, I am a
single mom just trying to make it in this crazy world. I am a failure;
I am a freak; I am an alcoholic; I am rich; I am the carefree sort; I
am depressed. We tend to define ourselves by the things we do, the
people with which we associate (I am a Republican), the things we are
dealing with, or the things that have happened to us. The truth is that
“I” am not my job, my job is what “I” do. “I” am not a failure,
although I may have failed at some things in the past. So “I” am not
the things I do, I am not the things I have been given, I am not the
things that have happened to me, I am not other peoples’ expectation or
definition of me. I am not my failures or successes… and the list goes
on. I am not the external events and influences of my life.
There
is something else going on in here that is not just the sum and effects
of the externals of my life. Our perception of who we are can be
strongly influenced by the conditions and experience of our lives. No
doubt about that. For instance, if a child is told that they are
stupid, of little value, and that they will never amount to anything,
they may very well believe that about themselves. Inside, there may be
a great capacity for solving problems and issues plaguing our society,
but if the false image is not caste down, the potential will never
develop. Their life could be compared to the potential of that in a
peach seed. The germ and life of the tree is buried deep within the
hard impermeable shell. If the shell is not broken, there will never be
all that delicious fruit, season after season, and no shade to comfort
someone on a hot July afternoon, no exquisite silhouette against the
full moon in December. It is this believing something other than the
truth that has the potential of humanity locked up, fearful, living
within the walls of our own perceptions, deceptions, and defenses.
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