Who am I? I seem to ask myself this question all of the time. Well I suppose that comes as no surprise since I seem to ask others this question before even learning their name. However, this question has no simple answer. Instead, it seems to just propel me into a battle with language, culture and history. Usually the journey looks something like this:
The Stranger: Hello. I'm Joe. Who are you?
Alison: "Oh hello, I'm Alison. Nice to meet you."
Oh wait! Am I really Alison, or am I Avigail? Alison is my legal name in the US, but Avigail is my Hebrew name that was given to me by my Rabbi. Ok. I'm in the USA, my legal name here is Alison--and legal things are more powerful than religious things in the USA, so I must be Alison. Ok. The government's power settles it, for now.
The Stranger: "Nice to meet you Alison. Where are you from?"
Me: Well, I'm bi-coastal I suppose. I was born in Brooklyn, grew up in Seattle, live in Massachusetts and am moving to Israel for a year. Simple answer right?
At this point I usually smile and make fun of the fact that this is still one of the longest answers I've heard to date. The responses after this point tend to vary in order. However, most people at some point, some where, someday (ok usually in the first five minutes) will end up asking me, "Are you Jewish?" and I will respond with a "Yes."
However, this answer is not a simple one. Behind it lies a myriad of questions I have yet to answer. As a Jew, who am I? What are my responsibilities? Who is my community? Where should I go? What should I do?
This blog will explore the questions of identification that myself and others are pushed to pursue. Please contribute! Tell me what you think about these questions, where do you see them in your life? How do you react to them? Are they good? Are they bad? You know...do some thinking about it and join me. I'm always open to comments and suggestions. I hope we can pursue this questions together thoughtfully and provocatively.
So come on...
Who are you anyways?
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5 comments:
You are asking a question that can never be answered to your full satisfaction. I love those kind of questions. Here's an answer I read when I was younger and have never forgotten:
"Each of us exists as a particular and personal interpretation of the possibilities that we are."
I also appreciate the multiple domains in which you are posing the question. Especially since we are "born into" these conversations about identity. In other words there were Jews before you were born so you inherit all the predispositions good and bad about being a Jew. In that way our identities are not a part of our bodies but are part of the conversations that we are born into.
The other part of identity that I find fascinating has to do with how we are positioned in the world. In other words my identity is defined by how it relates to your identity. In other words I am older you are younger, I am your father you are my daughter, I am an employer you are an intern, I am a musician... so are you.
Despite all these questions you ask yourself about inherited and performed identity, you can't forget a personal identity that would be present whether you grew up in Israel, India or Indiana; the one they say 'comes from the heart.'
I wish you so much good for your travels and know they will be amazing and tumultuous and revealing and humbling. Amongst all these other identities to grapple with, keep your heart at the forefront and notebook in hand. I'm excited to hear about everything you discover.
alison and avigail,
to whom am i writing ?
an insight i gained about a year ago was around our two selves. we always or often think of ourselves as one thing...something static and alive in this moment. that is what i have traditionally identified as me, who i am...and yet what i learned through a harvard business professor in creativity, was that there's another self, and that is my future self. so i am two: i am everything i've known up to this present moment, and i am who i am becoming into the future. this dance between these two selves has me feeling much more liberated about things i've done, or the past i've inherited, or the mistakes i've made, or the great things i've done....like jon's initial post indicated, we also are these possibilities...
we are a wave and a particle. a particle is fixed in time, and the wave is all potentiality.
ahhhh. so dancing along this spectrum we go. and keeping the question alive...never settling in on one answer.
i LOVE YOUR BLOG!!
love
sheri
ps to my earlier comment, quoting Otto Scharmer in Theory U:
"My journey began with the recognition that I am not just one self but two selves. One self is connected to the past, and the second self connects to who i could become in the future...Who is my true self? I still ask, how does this self relate to that other stream of time - the one that seemed to draw me from the future that is wanting to emerge - rather than extending and enacting the patterns of my past. And how does this self that connects to the future connect to my work?"
Ahh, this is my inquiry. May it support all of us.
sheri
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