Note to Self — Episode 10

Who the hell am I?

I’ve always found it interesting how people choose to define themselves.

Nowadays, it’s often based on their job — I’m a banker, a doctor, a lawyer, I work in startups, I’m an engineer, I work in a care home, I deliver for Amazon, I’m an investor , I ‘m a cashier at McDonalds — the list is, of course, endless.

And if not by the job, then maybe it’s by where you’re from, I’m an East African Asian, I’m English (lot of that going on at the moment), I’m from China, I’m Texican, I’m Italian, I’m second generation Greek Australian — and here the premutations are growing as we see more cultures mixing and melding, more relationships blossoming.

Or maybe, it’s by sexual preference — I’m straight, I’m gay, I’m non binary, I’m trans, I’m still deciding…

Of course, right now, there are more and more defining themselves by their politics, left, right, centre and variations on those themes.

I’m struck by how language forces us into these mental modes. Because we decide to give a concept a name, we bind it, and by binding it we force ourselves into a narrow definition when we are by our very nature subtle and different in more ways than one can imagine.