#mentalhealthmonday
#mentalhealthawareness
Our identity is such a funny thing. Some people seem to wake up in the morning with a firm grasp of who they are, or at least they believe that who they think they are is right for them. That’s awesome.
For others, identity is like the North on a compass; a general vector towards something to be achieved later. Perhaps something to be discovered or earned through trial and hardship.
There is much about Identity that is of valuable discussion these days. Our academic psychologists seem to be re-writing and re-assessing what identity means to the individual. While some decry this as an undermining of previously held foundations of scientific research, others point to the idea that identity can be fluid.
I myself have always been a creature of change. In my youth, I struggled with ideas of who I was and what I would become. This led me to some pretty dark and destructive places, but in the end, I navigated that dark morass of unknown identity and eventually felt free to explore who I was and what I might become. I chock it up to my endless curiosity. I feel like an artist whose greatest project is himself. A work of a lifetime.
Still, there are those who I described above, people whose identities are not in flux or fluid. Stalwart individuals who seem like rocks on which the seas of uncertainty break and recede. I love those people. I believe that in order for us to advance as a species, we need all of us.
I think that we need to acknowledge each other’s journey, be they young people struggling to find out who they are, or the thousands of soldiers coming back from 20 years of sustained warfare, who are trying to figure out who they are next.
We also need to identify those who would prey on people who are struggling with identity. Ideological vampires who seek personal gain and grift from the vulnerable.
Being who we are means something different to each of us, but I think that with support, we can help each of us go from caterpillar to butterfly and make this a world better place, full of better people.
Have a great week!
Happy Victoria Day, to all my commonwealth cousins.
Be safe.
Be well.
Much Love.
-DJR
