I'm wondering...about how we know who we are.
Do we, for example, know this ontologically?
Or, do we know this much more practically, like through our experience (family, socially, work, etc.)?
Do we know it spiritually — through the trifecta of scripture, tradition, personal experience (arrange these in whatever order you like)?
Perhaps more significantly, what are the kinds of things that challenge our working understanding of who we are — particularly, the things that disrupt that understanding?
For example, how much of how we think about ourselves is based on what we think others think of us? Do they like us? Even more potently, do they enjoy us (…because, what if they don’t?)? Where do the answers effectively leave us?
We wonder about these kinds of things from time to time, usually as time permits and often only theoretically. But, at other times, we wonder about such things when we discover something that feels like risks something about our self-understanding, especially in a personal way. Then, the question takes on all kinds of dimensions (some good, some not). So, what do we, in fact, use to answer it?
This happened to me this last weekend; which is why, this week, I’m wondering…about who I really am and how I know that.
