Tag: identity

Jumping

 

He who jumps into the void owes no explanation to those who stand and watch.
— Jean-Luc Godard

 

On the edge of not-self
I jump into the void
dissolving into being bliss
that lasts no-time forever
soon i will return
in purer form
Identity renewed
still on the edge
but the opposite side
of self-renewal
ready for new beginnings
returned from abyss journey
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Healing CastHealing Cast by G A Rosenberg

 

Strange AquariumStrange Aquarium by G A Rosenberg

 

What We Know, Who We Are

 

“A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance.”
— Eliezer Yudkowsky

 

What would you trade for knowledge? Would you be willing to give up what you think you know? Are you able to admit that everything you believe is at best partially right and is in all probability mainly wrong? Are you what you know? Many people seem to believe they are and when challenged they fight for their assumptions as if their very identity itself is being challenged. It is only by surrendering ignorance that we can attain knowledge. What we have learned up until now has to continually be smashed on the rocks of life’s experience in order for us to learn more. This can be devastating if we believe we are what we know. Most times I tend to believe I am more defined by my ignorance than my knowledge.
Blessings, G

 

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<h5 style="text-align:center;"Energized2Energized by G A Rosenberg

 
<h5 style="text-align:center;"Spatial AnomalysSpatial Anomalies by G A Rosenberg

 

The Lazy Mask

 

“We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.”
― Patrick Rothfuss

 

Identity is a slippery thing. We spend so much of our time trying to find an identity, building it out of what we admire in others and what we read along with bits and scraps of what shines through from our real beings. Sometimes we find a label that attracts us. It may be a spiritual, political, sexual or genre affiliation yet it draws us in so much that we attempt to remake ourselves into everything that that label portends. This may be fun for awhile but ultimately we may find that in assuming the mask, that we have lost ourselves. We may find ourselves taking on attitudes that are far from any that we would choose on our own, ones we may have once found abhorrent all in the name of what we would have ourselves become. That’s the problem with taking what I consider a lazy way out. In the long run it may be more arduous and time-consuming to pick and choose what qualities most draw us from all the potential labels and so become our true self but by doing so we drastically lower the risk of getting stuck in a mask that is not ourselves.
Blessings, G

 

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AnimaAnima by G A Rosenberg

 

Wounded HeartThe Wounded Heart by G A Rosenberg

 

Identity Doggerel

 

“I am not sure that I exist, actually. I am all the writers that I have read, all the people that I have met, all the women that I have loved; all the cities I have visited.”
— Jorge Luis Borge

 

Here is a street that I walked down last May
Catacombs in the dark where I wandered
Here is a song that I heard yesterday
with some of the lyrics a-sundered

 

Laugh at a joke that I heard before
tho now it comes from my mouth
Cry at a tale that I heard though a door
in a mansion down in the south

 

None of what you see before you is me
at most I must be a composite
of places I’ve been and people I’ve met
into my void, you’ll too deposit

 

Still there is someone who picks and chooses
the elements of life that I show
something unique that decides what he uses
a spirit that’s always in flow.
— G A Rosenberg

 

Blessings, G

 

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Puppet ShowPuppet Show by G A Rosenberg

 

Enticed DownwardEnticed Downwards by G A Rosenberg

 

Endless Questions

 

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
— Thích Nhất Hạnh

 

The simplest questions are the most profound.
Where were you born?
Where is your home?
Where are you going?
What are you doing?
Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.
— Richard Bach

 

I feel lost in a web of introspection tonight. I look at and question my motivations. Why am I so obsessed with making art of late? What in me needs to be expressed? Is it an addiction to the comments and feedback or is it something deeper? Where is my spiritual centre these days? Where am I going with what I am doing? The endless stream of questions continue. If this is who I am right now I can embrace it until something else calls to me. I shall remain open to whatever comes but I will continue questioning. Perhaps in the journey to find the answers and my openness along the way I will learn more than if I had a specific goal in sight. That is a goal beyond gaining ever greater understanding. Tho sometimes it feels as if paradoxically the plot thickens and I’ve lost the plot at the same time. Time will tell of course. It always does. What is time tho than another word for change?
Blessings, G

 

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Succulent LifeSucculent Life by G A Rosenberg

 

Eye in the StormEye in the Storm by G A Rosenberg

 

The Subject of the Snapshot

 

“I want to learn how to hold the paradoxical poles of my identity together, to embrace the profoundly opposite truths that my sense of self is deeply dependent on others dancing with me and that I still have a sense of self when no one wants to dance.”
― Parker J. Palmer

 

Who am I? That is probably one of the most profound questions we can ask ourselves. The chances are good that of the several answers that come up, over half will describe who we are in relationship to others. It’s incredible how our identities change in that respect. My identity in relation to my parents may be very different from what it is in relationship to friends which again is very different than who I am to my lover or my boss. Does who we are change or is it just different facets of our being and what is the totality at the core of it. Who are we in relationship to ourselves and the universe? How do we uncover that true authentic self and how do we fearlessly and authentically show it to the others in our lives? If each facet of our identity is but a snapshot in time and space, how do we find the subject of the snapshot?
Blessings, G

 

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Secrets Uncovered, Discoveries to be MadeSecrets Uncovered, Discoveries About to Be Made by G A Rosenberg

 

Currents2Currents II by G A Rosenberg

Facets of Self

 

“I’ve tried to become someone else for a while, only to discover that he, too, was me.”
― Stephen Dunn

 

So many people live within me. Every aspect that has surfaced so far I’ve explored in the quest for greater self-knowledge. When contradictions exist I either hold them or resolve thin since it has become evident that one can hold two conflicting ideas and ideals at once. Yet every shadow has been a different reflection of the totality. It’s not so much disassociation as building a community of myself that interacts with the community that is each of you. We all contain multitudes. We are a dutiful or rebellious child, a parent, a friend and possibly several different kinds of friend. We are seekers of understanding and magicians looking to affect our universe. We are co-workers and creators. We are idealists and cynics and sometimes we must blend each of these or all of these in different combinations. We may enjoy all these different facets of our existence, never losing sight that they are but parts of a whole that we come to know more and more.
Blessings, G

 

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Shadow DreamscapeShadow Dreamscape by G A Rosenberg

 

StarRays Over a Layered ExistanceStarlight Over a Layered Existence by G A Rosenberg

I Am

 

“I simply feel that a human being must always recognize that he is qualitatively more than any system of thought he can imagine, and therefore he should never label himself. He degrades himself when he does.”
— Alan Watts

 

I am statements are powerful. When we use the words “I am” in conjunction with any other words, we say that we so identify with the object of the sentence that we use that phrase as a boundary of our existence. I am Christian. I am black. I am female. I am gay. I am straight. I am male. I am a follower of Thelema. Any and all of these may be true but what else are you?
We are all unique expressions of the all. Mapping ourselves in a one to one relationship with any one philosophy, religion or orientation created by another limits us. What’s more we also give others the power to limit us as well. Far too often, we dismiss each other with a series of labels as if to say that once we know that someone is a Heterosexual Conservative we know everything that could be of interest about her. Somewhere along the way, we forgot that she practices the Rites of Spring with a group on the equinox or talk about how she raised a child with Downs Syndrome.
We are all so much more than the sum of our labels. I find that I describe myself less and less with I am statements as the years continue onwards. I am and that is enough.
Blessings, G

 

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Moon Gazing But Missing the Big PictureMoon Gazing But Missing the Big Picture by G A Rosenberg

 

CamouflagedCamouflaged by G A Rosenberg

The World According to Jean Valjean

 

“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
― George R.R. Martin

“I’ve tried to become someone else for a while,
only to discover that he, too, was me.”
― Stephen Dunn

 

Who am I and who am I in relation to other people? At my core what do I contain and what contains me? We draw other people into our lives and interact with them and with each interaction the question becomes both clearer and more muddied. Tonight My son took us for Father’s Day to see the Canadian touring company of Les Misérables, a musical that’s well-loved by my family. At its core, aside from the historical milieu it shows a series of interactions between people that changes one or both of them. The more adaptable the person is to circumstances, the better they are at integrating the exchange and becoming more themselves. This is personified best in the characters and interactions between the two main characters Jean Valjean and Inspector Javert. Jean Valjean portrays a man unjustly imprisoned for a crime who is freed and then pursued by his jailer Javert. Javert sees things as absolutes. A criminal is always a criminal and society must be protected by them. He sees nothing wrong with acting dishonestly himself to catch criminals because he is on the ‘right’ side of the law. Jean Valjean is more concerned with doing the right and honourable thing and finds his true identity through his choices. Each encounter between Valjean and Javert transforms both as more and more Valjean chooses honesty over his societal role and Javert choosing his moral (as opposed to ethical) absolutes. Javert when forced to go beyond his societal identity and his rigid sense of right and wrong finds himself unable to live in a world where a thief can have more honour than an officer of the law.
Are we defined by our society or by our inner being? How do we test this if not through other people? This question has come up for me a lot in my life. Ultimately I may pick up much from the viewpoints and being of those around me but all my attempt to live according to some label has proved more and more laughable. My interactions with both Valjean and Javier have driven home that point. But then I have always interacted well with fictional characters, no matter how real they may be.
Blessings, G

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Holographic2Holographic by G A Rosenberg

 

Thunder MandalaThunder Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 24 2013

“Do you have any advice for your readers?”

“Lead the life that’s yours instead of faking someone else’s.”
― Sandy Nathan

 

That’s some amazing advice from Sandy Nathan.  For so many years I felt insecure about being myself around people. I would find role models, usually peers and model myself after them in how I spoke and my general demeanour. I had the hardest time understanding why every couple of months while I was doing that I would have an almost total break down and descent into a pretty black mood. My authentic self was rattling at the door of the cage I had put it in trying to break free. I had some amazing adventures along the way and each time as I would loose another adapted persona, more and more of who I really am emerged.
No one can hide from themselves and the world forever. We can try to pretend to be someone else (a teacher, a performer we admire, a religious leader).  We can even try to become one of the many identity tags we take on (lawyer, doctor, catholic, jew, gay, female) and be an exemplary cliche of how we believe that someone with that identity should act. If it is not authentic, it will fall apart in time. That’s ok, whenever that happens, our real selves get closer. After all, its not only someone else’s life that we can’t get away with faking, it is our own as well.
Blessings, G

 

 

 

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PresencePresence by G A Rosenberg

 

Tiger SketchTiger Sketch by G A Rosenberg