Identity.

I first started thinking about identity...well for a pretty long time. Identity is actually a subject which seems to sneak it's way into much of what I think about. The identity component is key to understanding an idea, because it provides insight into why a person is motivated to have an idea. If you walk a mile in someone else's shoes, you get to understanding why they might complain about their feet hurting, that sort of idea.

But, what sparked me on this line of thinking was a simple observance last Saturday.

I was hurriedly striding back to FIJI from the Ohio State debacle. I was in a rush because I had an assignment to cover, and I didn't want to be late. But, in my rushing, I still did get the opportunity to see a brief dialogue.

(young lad is standing on the street...mind you he's decked out in Michigan gear, and is of elem. school age)

OSU Fan: "Grow up to be a buckeye, son."

Young "M" Lad: No.

(Neil does a double take and keeps walking)

Now, this isn't of note to me because this lame OSU fan tried to convert a wolverine to a nut and failed. This is interesting to me, because it's as if being a Michigan fan was part of this kids identity. At that moment he was defined by being a Michigan Wolverine.

Now, this raises a few questions in my mind.

Who defined this identity. Was it the kid himself, or what it some outside entity?
How do identities change?
Do we even have ownership of identities?

There are more questions, but for the sake of my sleep, I think I will limit them there. Now, the answers to these questions are very significant because they seem to have bearing on whether what degree of individuality we have, if we have any individuality at all.

If we didn't have individuality, what use do we have fulfilling our own pursuits, or having wants and desires of our own. What would be the point in personal attention, why would we love one and not another. Basically, our whole manner of looking at the world would change if we had no individuality.

So, the big question is. Do we have individuality?

Clearly the boy has the recognition of identity with his expression "No. (I am not a buckeye)". So self-awareness is a quality we possess, and self-awareness is crucial to identity.

What else is crucial to identity?

Hmm...
Imagination- We must have something new to who we are, instead of just mimicking someone else exactly, otherwise we are not individual, but copies. That is not to say that other people are not influential in our identity. So, in a way imagination, thought, and ideas are the basis of our identities. Because thoughts are the first things that come to our bodies. The first things we do are control our thoughts, and then after than do we move to corpeal things.

Action- This has to be involved with identity because actions are what establish our identity. If we never made an influence, an impact, or a move...we would never be able to exhibit what our identity truly is.

Consistency- Without consistency, there would not be an identity, I suppose. There would just be an unlinked occurrence of actions. Identity also implies something distinct from other people, and something that is unique to an individual. I suppose without consistency, actions would be considered an "identity crisis".

Now...the big question is...where does identity come from?

Where does the imagination begin.

Let us for a moment consider something we have heard of but have never seen before. Let me make up an arbitrary object called a "Balonergaster". Can you visualize a Balonergaster? What if I told you it was red? It was square? It was vibrating? All those ideas, are not newly imagined, they are based off of past experience. I can only visualize something red, because I have seen and identified red before. Same thing with square, and something that vibrates.

But, now consider if you imagined that the Balonergaster had some sort of an abstract pencil sharpening mechanism. That thought could be anything. The pencil could be sharpened in any mechanical way. It could have little pencil sharpening elves. It could be entirely magical.

Now lets consider this in terms of identity, and let the above be an analysis of imagination. So, our imagination are a mixture of mostly old experiences coupled with a few new thoughts. So, the basis of our identities are our imaginations, and the basis of our imaginations are past experiences, and since experiences is very influenced by other people. The basis of identity is influences by other people. Some of our identity is influenced by ourselves.

But, this seems so detrimental, because if the basis of our identity is not ourselves, then we are subscribing to problems identified above.

This is why it is different. For one, we are the assemblers of our imagination. We control our imagination, so despite the fact that the substance fueling our imaginations may be mostly influenced by people outside ourselves, we still are the filters of that information and experience in how it influences our identity.

Furthermore, we are the ones who act on our thoughts, so that is an even greater example of how we see the phenomenon of individual personalities, we choose to act differently. Notice that I never really implied that identity is a cause of action, but that action is a cause that determines identity.

The consistency part seems to be just a fulfillment of the definition, about the nature of identity, and not one of the devices of it's forming.

So, I think we are okay with being individual.

And, this also got me to thinking, where does my identity come from? Am I proud of my identity? Who helped shape my identity, because someone inevitably did.

This seems to be a list of the things that can shape identity. People who force their way into your lives. People who you let yourself get close to. Acquaintenes. Strangers in the world/world events. circumstance? But it's unclear to me who shapes identity more. It could be any. I think it depends.

In my life, it's the people I let myself get close to, I think. I don't really know what shaped my identity more, the experiences I had, the people I met, or the way I acted upon them.

Regardless, its keep to have good influences on your identity.

I'm tired. Good-night.

That is all.

BTW, I'm really curious how many people end up reading this.