Have you ever wondered what life would be like if you were not who you are?
In other words, what would life be like if you were not raised the way your parents raised you, if your faith was not what it is now, if the schooling you had was different from what you have had?
For me, it would be quite a change. One of my best friends and I were thinking about this the other day. What would life be like for us if we were not homeschooled, not Christian, and devoid of the morals we have from our upbringing?
If I were public-schooled, an atheist, and a "free-thinking" rebel, or just totally different from what I am now, I decided that I would be...a hippie. I would be really into New Age thinking (for instance, yoga would be my "meditation" instead of prayer), I would be anorexic, wear bellbottoms, have really long hair, and be all for "peace". All that jazz. Oh, and I would write steampunk novels. Probably would write a lot of romance too.
I say this because I think I have a little bit of the hippie, the steampunk, and the New Age in me. Actually, I think I have a little bit of everything in my personality. I'm a psychological mutt. I'm actually not a big fan of steampunk as a genre, but I find elements of steampunk intriguing and simpatico with elements of my personality. And one of my favorite Japanese anime movies by famed filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is steampunk, Howl's Moving Castle. I also don't enjoy the political/moral mindset of hippies, but I think they can have cool styles. And as for New Age...I only say that I have a bit of New Age in me because I enjoy yoga as an exercise, and I listen to Enya. (Enya is technically considered New Age.)
To present evidence that my personality is all over the place and unable to be categorized, here are some photos of myself and my room:
This is a prime example right here. These are the books I am reading/am going to read. From L to R: a book about music therapy, a Star Wars book, "The Once and Future King", a book about God, and a book on writing by E.B. White.
Another classic example. Here we have juxtaposed a "Hellboy" poster and a poster of a cute little foal.
Two of my three bookshelves. I don't know if you can really see what's there, but among the medley are Beowulf, Plato, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Oscar Wilde, The Complete Sherlock Holmes, St. Thomas Aquinas, The Red Flag: A History of Communism, and numerous collections of fairy tales.
I will let this picture explain itself.
Yes, this is a sword. So I have a Japanese katana by my bed. What? Don't you?
These last two are me with two things I love but which, I think, don't normally go together. I actually have more than one pipe (I have three, to be exact), and their names are Archimedes, Oscar, and Clive. This is Clive...
...and this is J.S. BB-gun. Named after J.S. Bach.
That's me and my personality in a prolix nutshell! If you were to examine who you are now, who do you think you would be?
What if?
Pax,
Clare
With respect to who I would be: I think that if it were not for my discovery of Thomas Aquinas and that Logic class I took in spring of last year, I would be a volatile, over-emotional, and generally irrational person (or am I still all of those? Hmmm...). Now that I think of it, if I had never known Anne, I never would have been introduced to philosophy in the first place. And I would add in all honesty that your own example (and Anne's, of course) as a Catholic has pushed me to be a better one myself; if I hadn't known your family and hers at all, I imagine I would be a VERY different person. No doubt about that.
ReplyDeleteOh, and if I had never gotten so into Frank Sinatra and all that, I probably would have no taste for ballroom dancing.
Without Catholicism (and the philosophy that has come from it), I probably would have eaten up Dawkins' "The God Delusion" without a thought for how philosophically incoherent his arguments are. I'd be a young and ignorant Internet atheist, really - the kind you see on YouTube or Reddit. And as I believe either you or Anne said, I would probably be a lot more moody, though I'm not completely sure why that would be. Maybe religion has given me a semblance of honor, duty, and self-knowledge that I otherwise wouldn't have had.
There's a lot more on this subject that I'm wondering about. Food for thought!