michael.

Me and my husband saw This IS It tonight and I am basking in the glow of the powerful story of Michael. As I was watching it, the sociologist in me was wondering what it was like to be him. How do we know who we are? We create our identity either by default or by choice, or a combination. It seems the creation by choice is where the power is.
I came away with the idea that this life is all about story. We live and breathe story--it is the context of us, who we perceive ourselves and others and the world around us to be.

Nothing is objective. Everything is a story, and we assign values and definitions to all the different parts.

I self reflect and wonder who I am and how much who I perceive myself to be is reliant upon my assumptions of others' perceptions of me. I found pictures of my trip 12 years ago to France to visit my birth mother and her other children, and I was studying them last night. I see my resemblance in her. Then by chance I found pictures she sent me of my birth father and it was haunting to recognize myself in him, him whom I know nothing about. How strange it is to look at my likeness in these people, these people whom more than just my body is made from. What other qualities besides physical traits do I share with them?

I look forward to finding the answers and integrating them into myself.