“That it helps us to see ourselves as we really are.” (ODAT, 26 April)
What am I?
Not anything I find in inventory, good or bad.
I find I’m the observer of those things.
I observe, therefore I am.
I am also not any demographic boxes or categories.
If I am asked how I see myself, and I answer with demographic boxes or categories, I am not answering the question.
I’m answering the question as to what demographic box I fit into or what category I belong to.
But the box, the category is a construct, even if qualification for a box or a category is based on irreducible facts.
Different times, different societies, same person, different boxes, different categories.
Different manual, different diagnosis.
The boxes, the categories, the diagnoses are not the underlying reality: they are not my identity, but a communicative and operational convenience.
I no longer need to suffer from a case of mistaken identity.
In sum: what I believe, think, and do, even intrinsically, habitually, or involuntarily, does not swill back and characterise what I am.
The source remains unaffected by downstream activities, events, and experiences.
The source remains permanently pure and what it is: anything entering the river downstream remains an addition to the river.
The river is not what perfumes or pollutes it.
What is more: the substance of the river is constantly changing.
The river is the flow itself, not the substance flowing.
If the river could know itself, it would know itself not to be a physical substance.