what is it to know yourself? that's a pretty straight forward question; basically all you have to do is to self identify, accurately evaluate your at-the-moment emotions you're experiencing, know the relationship that your emotions have with the reality that you're experiencing, and have a handle of how these relationships influence your actions. yeah, what it is to know yourself is a pretty simple something to identify. actually knowing yourself is always a work in progress. in theory, we always run into new, or at the least different life situations and circumstances. with that realized, our equation of emotions + situations + present state of mind + level of stress + history usually ='s a similar, yet slightly different, reaction than what we in the past have lived and experienced. so, with all these factors and slight differences in self, can you actually say with any real accuracy that you completely and truly know yourself?
the first time i really thought about this concept was when i saw the matrix. the first one, where it was actually something cool to watch, and neo was pretty much a bitch for both the real world and the matrix. and i've just shown my age.....anyway, that was when i thought about it. i had just gone into college, lived through my parent's 7th break up/2nd divorce, and was living with my mother. i was in a place where i was not only dating as much as i possibly could, but i was doing as many things as i could figure that an african american male was suppose to be doing at the time......nothing really was fulfilling though. playing a sport......yeah, boring. going to school....just as boring. dating all the time.....sometimes just as boring. so, what was missing. well, i decided to take some time and actually start figuring out what it was that made me tick. my method was to chronicle everything as a story, exactly as it was felt, and completely in the moment it was felt. it was very time consuming. what i found was that i was able to see a sort of consitent way that similar situations would be handled and play out. in essence, i learned how to recognize what i was, and eventually how to know what/who i was.
as time went on, i did this silly little thing called maturing, well maybe not. but what i did realize is that no matter how well i 'knew' myself in the past, and how i could use the reactions that proved to hold the most success or peaceful outcome in whatever the given situation was, the difference in environment, time, or circumstances proved that what i knew, really held no real relevance to what i was experiencing at the time. needless to say, i questioned a lot of what i felt i had learned, and eventually lost a lot of faith in 'knowing who i was.' even though that time has past, and i have come to know myself pretty well once again, i am confronted with this question: is it really all that big of a deal to know yourself?.....given that you'll always be in a perpetual state of change.
it is my belief that we will always be in a state of evolution, even if it is a slight, nearly unidentifyable state. we can only know ourselves as much as possible for the moment. but even with that being true, we should always be striving to become familiar with, and befriending the new 'self' the very moment it's presented. maybe it's a bit far fetched, but i do believe we can always 'know thy self', even if dumb ass keonu reeves.....or however you spell his name, couldn't figure it out until the third, fucking horrible, matrix ended. thank you neo, you ruined my trilogy.
peace ya'll
marsh
the first time i really thought about this concept was when i saw the matrix. the first one, where it was actually something cool to watch, and neo was pretty much a bitch for both the real world and the matrix. and i've just shown my age.....anyway, that was when i thought about it. i had just gone into college, lived through my parent's 7th break up/2nd divorce, and was living with my mother. i was in a place where i was not only dating as much as i possibly could, but i was doing as many things as i could figure that an african american male was suppose to be doing at the time......nothing really was fulfilling though. playing a sport......yeah, boring. going to school....just as boring. dating all the time.....sometimes just as boring. so, what was missing. well, i decided to take some time and actually start figuring out what it was that made me tick. my method was to chronicle everything as a story, exactly as it was felt, and completely in the moment it was felt. it was very time consuming. what i found was that i was able to see a sort of consitent way that similar situations would be handled and play out. in essence, i learned how to recognize what i was, and eventually how to know what/who i was.
as time went on, i did this silly little thing called maturing, well maybe not. but what i did realize is that no matter how well i 'knew' myself in the past, and how i could use the reactions that proved to hold the most success or peaceful outcome in whatever the given situation was, the difference in environment, time, or circumstances proved that what i knew, really held no real relevance to what i was experiencing at the time. needless to say, i questioned a lot of what i felt i had learned, and eventually lost a lot of faith in 'knowing who i was.' even though that time has past, and i have come to know myself pretty well once again, i am confronted with this question: is it really all that big of a deal to know yourself?.....given that you'll always be in a perpetual state of change.
it is my belief that we will always be in a state of evolution, even if it is a slight, nearly unidentifyable state. we can only know ourselves as much as possible for the moment. but even with that being true, we should always be striving to become familiar with, and befriending the new 'self' the very moment it's presented. maybe it's a bit far fetched, but i do believe we can always 'know thy self', even if dumb ass keonu reeves.....or however you spell his name, couldn't figure it out until the third, fucking horrible, matrix ended. thank you neo, you ruined my trilogy.
peace ya'll
marsh
