Identity

This week I've had a number of lovely thought provoking conversations with friends over coffee, lunch, email and even at the propagation bench at the Garden.  I'm blessed with so many thoughtful caring people I can call my friends.  As I reflect on these conversations, one question stands out to me.  I was asked "Who are you, really?"  I had been talking about how it is hard to remember, even imagine, having been a minister or having gone to Seminary in my 50's.  I look at the detritus from that life, my books, knick-knacks, pictures and it all seems so very long ago.  I've shed that identity rather like a snake sheds its skin exposing the vulnerable soft skin underneath.  Who am I really?  When I became a minister I worked hard to let go of my teacher identity (adults don't like to be taught very much I learned in church).  Now, progressives seem to be stuck on identity politics.  One is defined by the things one does.  My wonderful church seems increasingly stuck on gender identity politics.  Yet, there is more to a human being than what one does.  I resist being only identified by my skin color, my gender, my culture, my professions, my lifestyle, my accomplishments, or my failures.  Maybe a gift of growing older is that one sees more clearly one's true identity.   I'm not distracted by the busyness of my former life.   I like what the poet Rainer Maria Rilke said:  "One is identified by what one loves."  I want to reflect on what it is that I love.  Maybe just even say I love therefore I am.