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I'm a guy, 67, who is still figuring out my role in the world. I'm a recovering alcoholic (six months sober), and stopped using pot a few days ago. I'm definitely a work in progress.
I learned how to fish when I was 6 years old and it has stayed with me to this day. I went to school in Southern Idaho and turned that into a 31 year career with Oregon Fish & Wildlife. I live next to a beautiful river that I love to fish.
I've been married for almost 45 years and love my spouse more today then when I met her and fell in love in 1975. I have a daughter who I couldn't be more proud of. Her boyfriend lives in New York and they skype very night.
I live a pretty simple life, walk every day and pick up whatever trash there is. I do spend too much time on Citi-Data, but I forgive myself. I have few close friends and I'm okay with that too.
I grew up in a large religious family and got disfellowshipped when I was 18. Due to this religion, I had very little contact with my family except for my oldest brother who broke the rules by continuing fellowship with me. He died several years ago, and I miss him everyday.
My life is good and I'm happy to be me. If nothing else, it's been an interesting trip.
Great to hear honesty and not self-promoting rhetoric, good for you. Life is imperfect and we all live it similarly in some ways; my point exactly is to be honest with yourself. I happen to love olive oil but rather than convince myself that it's healthy so enjoy, I accept the reality that it does more harm than good and understand that. In being honest with myself, it makes me a better whole person and I make better choices. A tablespoon of olive oil has the same 120 calories as a pound of broccoli, which one do you think fills you up more? When I use olive oil I do so understanding that I know it's overly processed and the most caloric dense food there is, more than red meat, junk food, or nuts (2nd). Therefore I am conscious to use less of it or find alternatives out of shame rather than dump it on everything with the mindset that what doesn't taste better with olive oil.
Similarly with love, many couples get together out of need which IMHO is the worst reason to be together. Whether it's for money, security, loneliness, or lust it leads to a dissatisfied empty life. Popular phrases like I can't live without you, you complete me, or I don't want to die alone are pathetically selfish. Learn about yourself, strive to be a whole complete person, and expect nothing in being happy with yourself, anything extra life throws your way is an enhancement to your already great existence.
Glad to hear you found your soulmate, very few do, so your life is probably better than most, kudos.
The intent of the thread has been lost - if interested, go back to the OP. This thread is not about the roles you play in life. It's a more philosophical question about WHO YOU ARE . . . - think about it absent of any roles or labels.
I believe I addressed that point yesterday 3:38pm post citing another poster who also made the point. You started this post and never gave any insight except shutdown statements. What is your answer to this deep thought
I believe I addressed that point yesterday 3:38pm post citing another poster who also made the point. You started this post and never gave any insight except shutdown statements. What is your answer to this deep thought
I am not familiar with your post. My OP says my intention for this thread.
I was asking who you think you are absent of any roles.
My mother is long dead, but during the 20 years or so that she was alive while I was fairly sentient, every 3-4 years I'd have this experience of seeing her as who she was aside from her role as my mom. It would just happen, always in her presence but never because I consciously willed it or even due to thinking about her or her life. There were times I did think about her and some of the highs and lows I knew she lived through long before I was born, but I was always thinking of her as my mother and seeing her through that lens. Except for those 5-6 times I didn't.
Those moments would just happen. I can't think of anything I did to bring them on or any common elements to the experience except that it happened when we were together. I'd catch this glimpse, not a real image but more like a shadow or a figure in a dream that upon waking seemed to be a person you could name but then wasn't quite. Like a work colleague at your high school, the right person but out of context and so are they really that person? With mom I'd have this brief awareness that lasted only 5 or 10 seconds and evoked a dreamy confusion and curiosity and when I tried to understand, faded like a dream. But I wasn't dreaming and all I can say is that in that ephemeral haze she seemed most real.
It was like I saw her apart from the roles she played. Her essence. I can't make it happen and I haven't had that experience of her since she died. But in the past decade or so I've caught that dreamlike glimpse of myself, that awareness of me stripped of the roles I play. I know myself differently in those moments but when I think of the experience it crumbles. I can't access it through thought and can barely describe it in words, but it's happened several times now, a wordless insight into me.
And of course, putting it into words falls short of communicating what happened. More shadows and oblique screenshots. So I'm convinced I've seen my true self, but words or my imagination fail to convey who that self is, even to myself. And I'm not sure I mind. Maybe those glimpses are all I'm meant to see.
I am a stream of consciousness. A speck of dust in the vastity of the universe who takes himself way too seriously.
I'm the result of everything I've experienced so far and of how I processed it. I've built my own sense of reality and my own meaning of what is true. I've learned to tell good from bad.
I am an attentive observer of the world.
I wish I was a better person sometimes, but also feel better than most people on good days.
I've achieved the blissful and rare awareness of what makes me happy and what doesn't. I enjoy emotions more than objects, life experiences and knowledge more than possessions.
I've reached a state of enlightenment in some aspects of life and I occasionally look down, - quite arrogantly -, on how people get stuck in rat races about materialistic things and pointless competitions only to feed their confused ego and pride (at the expense of their real happiness). But I also know men need money to survive and for personal improvement.
I always live and let live. I GENUINELY respect all human beings and their lifestyles as long as they do no harm to others.
My mother is long dead, but during the 20 years or so that she was alive while I was fairly sentient, every 3-4 years I'd have this experience of seeing her as who she was aside from her role as my mom. It would just happen, always in her presence but never because I consciously willed it or even due to thinking about her or her life. There were times I did think about her and some of the highs and lows I knew she lived through long before I was born, but I was always thinking of her as my mother and seeing her through that lens. Except for those 5-6 times I didn't.
Those moments would just happen. I can't think of anything I did to bring them on or any common elements to the experience except that it happened when we were together. I'd catch this glimpse, not a real image but more like a shadow or a figure in a dream that upon waking seemed to be a person you could name but then wasn't quite. Like a work colleague at your high school, the right person but out of context and so are they really that person? With mom I'd have this brief awareness that lasted only 5 or 10 seconds and evoked a dreamy confusion and curiosity and when I tried to understand, faded like a dream. But I wasn't dreaming and all I can say is that in that ephemeral haze she seemed most real.
It was like I saw her apart from the roles she played. Her essence. I can't make it happen and I haven't had that experience of her since she died. But in the past decade or so I've caught that dreamlike glimpse of myself, that awareness of me stripped of the roles I play. I know myself differently in those moments but when I think of the experience it crumbles. I can't access it through thought and can barely describe it in words, but it's happened several times now, a wordless insight into me.
And of course, putting it into words falls short of communicating what happened. More shadows and oblique screenshots. So I'm convinced I've seen my true self, but words or my imagination fail to convey who that self is, even to myself. And I'm not sure I mind. Maybe those glimpses are all I'm meant to see.
I am a stream of consciousness. A speck of dust in the vastity of the universe who takes himself way too seriously.
I'm the result of everything I've experienced so far and of how I processed it. I've built my own sense of reality and my own meaning of what is true. I've learned to tell good from bad.
I am an attentive observer of the world.
I wish I was a better person sometimes, but also feel better than most people on good days.
I've achieved the blissful and rare awareness of what makes me happy and what doesn't. I enjoy emotions more than objects, life experiences and knowledge more than possessions.
I've reached a state of enlightenment in some aspects of life and I occasionally look down, - quite arrogantly -, on how people get stuck in rat races about materialistic things and pointless competitions only to feed their confused ego and pride (at the expense of their real happiness). But I also know men need money to survive and for personal improvement.
I always live and let live. I GENUINELY respect all human beings and their lifestyles as long as they do no harm to others.
Yes - the awareness behind the eyes . . . the witness.
We are not our roles (i.e., mother, father, child, daughter, businessman, shopkeeper, etc.) - so HOW do you define yourself?
What/Who are you?
I have no idea WHO I am . . .
I know what I like and what I don't like.
I know what my values are.
But I have NO IDEA WHO I am . . . not a clue.
How about you?
Very interesting topic! Most of us only know ourselves as our family role & occupation (sister, son, doctor, etc.), so the only other thing we can say to describe us are adjectives.
I don't care about being in the spotlight/being the center of attention. I stay in the background/in the "shadows".
I try to stay as content in life as possible & make the best of life because it's the only life we're going to have & it's short & is over in the blink of an eye.
I genuinely love my loved ones who are the closest people in my life. I cherish & value them.
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