Monday, November 15, 2010

Defining Ourselves

How do you define yourself? When somebody asks you who you are, what do you say? Do you express yourself as in your profession or your roles? Do you say you are a mother, a father, a son? What comes to your mind when you hear this question? When I think of this question, I can't help but think about the movie Anger Management when Jack Nicholson asks Adam Sandler to describe who he is and he starts saying he is a clerk, and Jack Nicholson says "Dave, that's your profession, what I am asking is who you are?" and then he keeps saying things connected to his hobbies and his roles and he gets to a point where he is so frustrated he says "I don't know who the f#ck I am, you tell me..."

On Saturday, I was sitting at the Union Square park in San Francisco and a very old Chinese man came to my table and asked me if he could sit down with me. He had a peculiar appearance with his colorful tie that pictured a parrot on it, his white gloves, and his cane. He took a while choosing the chair he wanted to sit on and fixing his things. Once he sat down, he took a photo album from his coat and started looking at the pictures what made me think how when we reach a certain age, all that is left is our family, our memories, how much we learned, how much we loved, and how much we shared with the world, no amount of money is going to make us stop getting old or dying so money should not be the most important thing in our lives. As he was looking at his pictures, he decided to start showing me his pictures. His English was broken but the pictures expressed how much of the Chinese culture is based on achievement. His comments were "this is my son, he is a doctor; this is my other son, he is an engineer... my grandson is a manager...." Every word that describe his family was connected with profession and roles and I could see he was so proud of what his family had accomplished. The people around me looked at me like I was out of this world since I was keeping the conversation with him but my parents taught me to respect the elderly and always be polite, we can always learn something from other people's experiences. I had a good time talking to this old man and made me realize how many times, even when I describe myself as a Priestess, I am defining myself within a role so I kept thinking what would be a definition that would describe me without taking into account the roles in my life and I came up with this "I am a powerful, beautiful, intelligent, and spiritual woman" so if you had to define yourself, what words would you use? What would you say?

Blessings )0(

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