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New work rule:
Once every 20 work days, you may pay $20 cash to your boss, to tell a customer EXACTLY WHAT YOU THINK for 20 seconds.
And some things I've been pondering.
One of those things is realizations. Let's call it "always meant to be" stuff.
For instance, someone who's a doctor, a damn good doctor, a good fit for the profession, smart, caring, empathetic-- you may say about them, "They were always meant to be a doctor." What that means is that if you look back, they had good grades in school, were empathetic in times of trouble, maybe even that they weren't afraid of blood or wounds as a child.
Of course, not even all of these things irrefutably destine someone to be a doctor, but when this sort of person becomes one, we all like to think we saw it coming.
What about things you don't have as much of a choice in setting? For instance, let's say that someone speaks to you about Christianity and you decide to convert and get baptized. No matter HOW well you do as a Christian, and how many things in your prior life you can point to and say "These are the signs that I would be a good Christian," can you really say that, in ANY sense, you were a Christian before you became one by choice?
Finally, what about things that some of us will agree you're born with? What about, say, being a lesbian? You put things together and admit it to yourself once you figure it out-- but were you always a lesbian, even before you got your first crush on a girl?
I suppose my question is really this. Are there things that are real, and true, and part of one's own identity-- but mutable? What if, one day, you decide that Christianity is a crock, that women are a pain in the ass, and that accounting is far preferable to medicine? Does this negate that you truly were the things you were?
Why is "just a phase" or "just a stage" such a bad thing? Is it truly a case of "call no man gay until he is dead"? Does it make someone less of what they were, when they become something else?
Once every 20 work days, you may pay $20 cash to your boss, to tell a customer EXACTLY WHAT YOU THINK for 20 seconds.
And some things I've been pondering.
One of those things is realizations. Let's call it "always meant to be" stuff.
For instance, someone who's a doctor, a damn good doctor, a good fit for the profession, smart, caring, empathetic-- you may say about them, "They were always meant to be a doctor." What that means is that if you look back, they had good grades in school, were empathetic in times of trouble, maybe even that they weren't afraid of blood or wounds as a child.
Of course, not even all of these things irrefutably destine someone to be a doctor, but when this sort of person becomes one, we all like to think we saw it coming.
What about things you don't have as much of a choice in setting? For instance, let's say that someone speaks to you about Christianity and you decide to convert and get baptized. No matter HOW well you do as a Christian, and how many things in your prior life you can point to and say "These are the signs that I would be a good Christian," can you really say that, in ANY sense, you were a Christian before you became one by choice?
Finally, what about things that some of us will agree you're born with? What about, say, being a lesbian? You put things together and admit it to yourself once you figure it out-- but were you always a lesbian, even before you got your first crush on a girl?
I suppose my question is really this. Are there things that are real, and true, and part of one's own identity-- but mutable? What if, one day, you decide that Christianity is a crock, that women are a pain in the ass, and that accounting is far preferable to medicine? Does this negate that you truly were the things you were?
Why is "just a phase" or "just a stage" such a bad thing? Is it truly a case of "call no man gay until he is dead"? Does it make someone less of what they were, when they become something else?
