I am a bit different than average. Okay, maybe that is to mild of a way of looking at it. In reality my focus is never on the metrics I observe others using. For instance, I do not care what your political views are or your pronouns, biases or what your other identifiers may be. What I focus on is how you behave despite how you would like the world to perceive you. I tend to always believe a person is of the best intentions until they give evidence otherwise. In short I am evidence driven rather than being dragged around by my emotions. Does that mean I do not have emotions? Of course not, it means that how I feel about what you said is far less likely to have an effect on my view of you than my evaluation of your intent.

It is all to easy for us to say 'I do not like labels.' and this may be true. It does not change the fact that labels is how the human brain tracks. We label everything. That is how we developed language in the first place. When I think about my own identity I am not focused on accidents of birth like my hair color, eye color, race, gender, nationality. I am more concerned about the attributes I play a role in. Such as humanity, apprecitation, awareness of my surroundings, awareness of now.

It is easy to define yourself by common labels such as Christian, Atheist, Muslim, CIS, Trans, etc. How important are these to your identity and why? When a person thinks of me I would far rather their first thought be 'He really cares' than 'He is a great Software Developer'. I really do not even care what pronouns they use as long as they are comfortable with them. To me if you confuse my identity I do not find that as a flaw in you. I find it a a flaw in me. How am I not representing my ideals? How can I more clearly reflect my ideals. If I have failed in this, it certainly is not your fault. Identity is a real issue these days. Though, the next time someone tries to set boundries ask yourself this. Are they building a privacy fence around their yard or are they building a fence around my yard? Respect the fence around their yard, do not accept their trying to control the way you think or express yourself. If a person offends you at the moment then do not dwell on that. Just move past that moment to now. If they tend to always be offensive toward you then move on in a way that seems most productive. These are ideals I live by not just talk about. Were most people tend to be very critical of others. I am most critical of myself. The reason is quite simple. I control my behavior not other people's. So I am only responsible for my behavior not theirs. It is about accountability. I am me, it would be very nice if you could be you. No one else has a right to impose on who you are. The good news is that they only can if you allow them to.

Unus Nemo

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#Identity #Self Awareness #Philosophy