On with it: I had dinner this evening with a few friends, some lovely people that I really appreciate. One topic that was constantly mentioned was the question of image, that is, how we appear to others. When we're not around, do people wish we were? How do they perceive us? What do they really think?
In part, I think this is what drives almost everything we do. We are constructing an image, be it false or real. We work arduously to produce something everyone will like: our humor, our dress, our speech, our occupation, etc. We are creating an identity, and we tweak this identity as parts of it are accepted by our peers and others rejected.
This sort of thinking is everywhere, even in my management book. I was studying for a test that I have tomorrow, and what I learned was that managing teams is so difficult because people often feel insignificant, rejected, or snubbed. Their egos become damaged, and they become unproductive. Their ability to function in society is dependent upon the acceptance or rejection of their constructed image.
I think that existence is a question of identity. In what do you find your identity? Who or what do you look to for validation? Family? Intellectual ability? Your fraternity? Your ability to make people laugh? The fact that you make a great deal of money? The fact that you are one of the "free ones" who doesn't need money? Everyone must ask this question.
I don't think many of us (including myself) really like to expend too much effort in thinking about the real makeup of our identities. If we were to think too hard, we might actually discover what we'd hoped we wouldn't: an identity grounded in things that don't last.
As much as I fight against Him, as much as I push Him away and try and form my identity on my own, He remains faithful. He tells me who I am. When I try and prove I'm somebody on my own terms and the crowd laughs, He's there in the back saying, "I'll always wait here for you." He's real like nothing else; He doesn't fade away.
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