Essay 26 - Do You Know Who You Are? (Mundane Level)

What is meaningful to one person may not be meaningful to another. What is meaningful to two people is probably not equally meaningful to both. Meaning is subjective and varies greatly from person to person. What we are concerned with here is - what is meaningful to you? And for you to figure that out, you must know who you are; not who you are in name but who you are as a person. This raises the vexing question – do you know who you are? And the answer is probably not.

Let’s begin with some very mundane questions. Do you like crunchy or creamy peanut butter? Do you prefer dogs or cats? Who is your favorite author? What is your favorite movie? Do you like sports cars or reliable cars? What was your favorite subject in school? If you could learn any language other than the one you speak what would that language be? Would you like to own a home, or would you prefer to rent? Do you keep your thermostat higher or lower than average? Do you prefer lots of friends or only a few friends? Are you thick-skinned or easily offended? Do you spend more time thinking about tomorrow or yesterday? What is the worst thing that could happen to you? What is the best?

We could go on for pages and pages. Some questions have easy answers while others are too much to think about. If you claim to like crunchy peanut butter, have you done a side-by-side taste test? If you don’t know how your thermostat setting compares with others have you ever endeavored to find out or do you think it is a silly question? Most people are under the illusion that they know themselves well but when pressed on specific mundane points they balk and often blame the question rather than their lack of self-knowledge.

This essay is 323 words long and the audio is just over 2 1/2 minutes.