Who Are You?

My children have a tendency to watch television, and fight over which character they think they are. “I’m Alvin.”
“I’m Carly.”
“I’m Andre.”
“I’m Spongebob.”

It doesn’t matter if they are watching a 30 minute sitcom, or a 2 hour movie, they each choose someone they “are”.

I find this so very familiar. I distinctly recall doing the same thing with my friend Jennifer and her twin brother Jeff. We’d watch shows, and among the three of us, we’d define the role for each of us, and then those roles were set. In stone. Forever. Watching re-runs of the Monkees, I somehow became Davy Jones because he was the shortest and I was the shortest. Watching the Nickelodeon show, Kids Writes, I was Carlos, because he was short and Mexican and I was short and Mexican (we weren’t at all racist). But we did this for every bloody show we watched. I recall wanting to be Bill Murray’s character in Ghostbusters (both the movie and the requisite cartoon) because he was snarky and cool, and in many ways I was snarky. Jeff was Egon, at least I think he was Egon. And Jen didn’t care for Ghostbusters so it didn’t matter one way or the other. Though I think she was Dan Akroyd because he was kind and naive. Regardless… we would all say “I’m so and so.”

Now, my kids do this.

What’s funny is that I see still grown ups (myself included) doing this. I see people the world over trying to figure out who they are. I remember when I joined Facebook, the then popular rage was to take quizzes to figure out which Harry Potter character you were, or Twilight character, or Disney Princess, or what color you were, vegetable, song, planet, and on and on.

We want to take a quiz, watch a show, go to church, read a book, listen to a song, choose a major, read a blog, and say “That is SO me. I mean honest to God, THAT is me.”

Can’t we write the story, the character, they lyrics ourselves?

How is it that we live in our bodies and minds day in and day out, but we have no clue who we really are? Why is the world so noisy and why do we care so much about what it says?

It’s damn terrifying to sit quietly and figure out who you are without the clamor of the world intruding.

I write this because my kids, MY KIDS, haven’t a clue who they are. How do I teach them that?

This is a new goal for me, a new purpose in life if you will, teaching my children, my beautiful, soul-filled, curious children, that they are enough.

They do not need to be anyone else.

They are enough.

When the world is quiet and your soul nudges your heart, who does it say you are?