ID please

Not many a subject quite like identity. Your identity, not merely your name, but all the factors that you identify with and make you... well... you.

Your name, facial features, gender, sexual orientation, taste in music, taste in fashion, taste in food. You know... you! Your place of birth, your mother's maiden name, your geographical location, your accent, your tone of voice, left-handed or right-handed, left-brained or right-brained, what you did yesterday, what you will do tomorrow. Oh don't tell me you've forgotten who you are! Your sins, your virtues, your mistakes, your triumphs, your highest peaks, your steepest valleys, you! you!

Your entire being can be justified on a piece of plastic that tells who takes a gander at it to know exactly who you are. You are Mr or Mrs so-and-so from so-and-so place, and you are so-and-so age, so you must be mentally mature enough to drink, or mentally mature enough to drive.

This piece of paper said you did something really well in a controlled set of circumstances so surely you can perform just as well if not better under radically different circumstances right?

Notwithstanding the importance of identity for navigating and categorising individuals, the concept is so vast and so broad that it truly does boggle the mind. Am I really just Mr so-and-so from so-and-so place and is so-and-so age? Or am I just this?

Dec. 10, 2024, 5:57 a.m.