Identity

IDENTITY  (ˌīˈden(t)ədē) :

noun

1. 1.

   the fact of being who or what a person or thing is:
2. 
   

1. 2.

   a close similarity or affinity:

(This is for you, Tony 😉...)

David Fishers poem "The Bear" inspired me to reflect on my own understanding of what the word "identity" means, and how we each define it. The bear has been defined by his performance career; he understands his role in the world as one to entertain in front of a crowd. He is thrust out of that world, and his own understanding of how he ought to live begins to dissolve. The poem ends with the bear playing his tricks in the forest to an invisible audience, solemnly carrying out the only role in which he knows his own place in the world. 

Identity. The concept of defining one's self. How do we know who we are? 

We have experiences, and memories. We recognize familiarity and repetition, and we find comfort in the predictable, knowing where we stand in relation to the world around us. And once that familiarity starts to change - as we grow up, and the world continues to move forward - we continuously must redefine our own understanding of ourselves. 

Sometimes it's really hard, or even impossible. 

The bear's feeling of loneliness and confusion is familiar to all of us. When we move to a new place, when a loved one dies, when the world around us starts to change in unfamiliar or frightening ways; we are constantly challenged to reflect and redefine who we are, and who we understand ourselves to be - what role we ought to play in the world around us. 

In that sense, I have always been curious if there is really a way we can understand our own true selves, beyond what the world and our environment does. If there is really a true identity in all of us that stands independent of our experiences and surroundings. And how do we start to access it and understand ourselves without letting the world around us interfere.

I'm not sure if it's possible. But I'm still trying.