How Do We Know Who We Are?
Do we learn it from a crystal ball—or from our guts?
Sometimes, when we ask ourselves who we truly are, we feel as though we’re gazing at the horizon. Be it light or dark, foggy or clear, the far-off air doesn’t yield answers about us.
So how do others state with certainty that they know who they are? Do they have a crystal ball, and do they see the answer in it?
If so, we want that.
If that’s how it works, we say to someone we’re jealous of, give me the tool, or give me the answer that comes from the tool, or both. Show me your crystal ball, or tell me who I am, or both.
On the other hand…
Maybe There Is No Crystal Ball
Maybe, when people say they know who they are, they aren’t saying they’ve got anything like a crystal ball. Maybe they, too, are gazing into the horizon. It may be light or dark, foggy or clear — but, somehow, the mist appears differently to them. They don’t see the rough shapes we see, or at least not the way we see them. They see different rough shapes, or they interpret them differently, and they do something different with that knowledge and belief. They move forward into the mist in their own way.
