You’re Not Who You Think You Are

No matter how you identify.

You are fundamentally more than your nationality. Your religion. Your heritage.

More than the color of your skin … your political or sexual orientation … your income … your legacy.

For someone who identifies strongly with “who they are,” that can be tough to hear.

While for others “who are you?” is a question so mystifyingly complex that it elicits only the drone of a drawn out ummm in reply.

Who is the one who says “I am …”?

So …

Who are you?

I used to hate when people asked me that.

How would you respond?

I am …

An American … a Russian … an engineer … a retail manager … a woman … a mother … a brother … a coach …. a wife … a friend … a busy executive … a divorcee … a democrat … a republican … liberal … conservative … cold … hot … sick … well … brown … white … rich … poor …

The list goes on and on. It is nearly inexhaustible. There are as many things to be, as many ways to identify, as the human mind can invent.

We may soon all be calling ourselves Oceanians

But I digress …

Point is, no matter what you claim to be … it is always preceded by the seemingly innocuous phrase: I am.

So it begs the question …

Who is it who says “I am” …

Who is it who has this experience of being?

It’s worth thinking about.

Because here’s the thing …

Of having an experience, we can be sure. It is evident in our being. So the “I am” is firm. (More on this in a second.)

But when you think about it … anything that follows “I am” is a kind of cognitive trap. You can be all of those things, in a sense, sure.

But if you want to go deeper and talk about what you truly “are,” then you have to begin thinking about that “I” in “I am.”

Instead of asking: “Who am I?” we should be asking: “Who is I?”

Who is I?

And when you think about it long enough, some pretty cool insights start to bubble up. For instance:

If I’m truly the thing that does the identifying, who has the experience of being, then I am fundamentally not the label (the identity) of which I am cognizant.

And so it follows that neither is anyone else.

And so it follows that all of our perceived differences are only a trick of the mind, a story we’re telling ourselves.

A story we have been told.

This is not some woo-woo, far out kind of idea!

It is a fundamental truth that you experience innumerable times every single day. And we unknowingly affirm this realization every time we utter “I am.”

Another insight you may discover:

All of this striving and suffering we’ve been putting ourselves through …

The excruciating and often devastating lifelong struggle of trying to know oneself is completely unnecessary, and frankly a little bit silly.

There is no one to know … nothing to be … nothing to do … nothing to attain.

You already are and have everything that you could ever need. Right now.

In this moment.

But it doesn’t end there …

Because remember earlier when I said that “I am” is firm.

Well … the truth is that even that is a little bit shaky.

Because when you think long enough about who the “I” in “I am” is …

You begin to realize that the “I” is cognitively unknowable.

Because you can’t put a label on it — you can only give words to the things “I” is not. We just can’t quite get at it.

I read once, but can’t remember where, that it’s like trying to swat a fly which keeps landing atop your hand.

You are fundamentally more than just …

An American … an engineer … a woman … a brother … a coach …. democrat … liberal or conservative.

You are fundamentally more than the collection of ways in which you identify.

You are also whoever or whatever is having the experience of being!

Who that “is” is a little bit more difficult to define …

What does any of this have to do with writing?

All of this should matter an awful lot to writers, no matter what you write.

Because if we’re fundamentally more then all of these things we go around making wars about …

Then we are in effect, each of us, every other one of us — and everything!

We are, as Carl Sagan said, a way for the universe to know itself.

Or as Alan Watts taught: the universe experiencing itself.

Or as Rumi wrote in the 13th century: the universe in ecstatic motion.

You are not either this or that. You are instead both this and that.

Both everything and nothing.

Both everyone and no one at all.

However things are may just as well be any other way.

This is all about mindset and expanding the bounds of what you think you know. Pushing yourself to find new and exhilarating ideas others haven’t dared to think.

That’s how you’ll find the really good stuff and the kind of inspiration that will have you hopping out of the shower and sliding sopping wet behind your desk.

A widened perspective is fertile ground for creative inspiration.

And “who is I” is as good a place as any to dive in.

More soon.

Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed reading this, whatever this was, then hop on over to https://notfordistribution.com to read other micro posts. While you’re there, sign up for my newsletter to get once-weekly very short stories + regular posts on writing, mindset, and creativity.

-Pat