{"id":397,"date":"2012-03-29T10:03:53","date_gmt":"2012-03-29T18:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=397"},"modified":"2012-03-29T10:03:53","modified_gmt":"2012-03-29T18:03:53","slug":"to-dance-a-thousand-flames-and-call-them-self","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"To Dance a Thousand Flames and Call Them “Self”"},"content":{"rendered":"

This phrase and picture came at me some years ago and re-presented itself recently in light of a growing awareness that I serve as a vehicle for innumerable roles. Some of these include dishwasher-guy (a not-particularly-super-hero), amanuensis (I just take dictation), encourager of others (often international students), etc. \"dancethousflames\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

The point of course is that \u201cSelf\u201d isn\u2019t one role but a source,<\/strong><\/em> a fountain of possibilities. The self (selves) of the musical composer may be discerned in the many moods and dances embedded in each compositions, and so too with the poet and artist. The idea that we are just one person is sooo 20th century, foolish once we recognize the creative potential of the mind. Integration can happen in bodies containing thousands of different kinds of cells, tissues, and organs, and so too the mind can be generally integrated. But that word\u2014integration\u2014is not the opposite of startlingly differentiated or diversified. I have serious  roles I play, and silly ones, profound roles and shallow ones. As I get to know people, it turns out they do, too, only for many this process role diversification and celebration is muted. <\/p>\n

The background rule (cultural) is that we should seek more unity, be more focused. The question, \u201cWho am I?\u201d  has not yet been recognized as misleading and in a way,  impossible. The old rule is that you\u2019re supposed to \u201cfind yourself,\u201d as if this were possible. Indeed, one can discover roles that feel more authentic, but there\u2019s no final result. A better rule would be to continue to create and re-create new facets of yourselves and to find ways to roughly integrate them. I say \u201croughly\u201d because the integration might be as simple as allowing some time for expression\u2014there\u2019s no need to be able to explain why or how a person who\u2019s so x<\/em> in many roles is completely (and refreshingly) y<\/em> in other roles. Integration is not unification, it\u2019s finding a way to build in some time for y<\/em> in a life dominated by the other \u201cletters\u201d of the alphabet of different roles one plays in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This phrase and picture came at me some years ago and re-presented itself recently in light of a growing awareness that I serve as a vehicle for innumerable roles. Some of these include dishwasher-guy (a not-particularly-super-hero), amanuensis (I just take dictation), encourager of others (often international students), etc. The point of course is that \u201cSelf\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-autobiographical","category-spirituality-and-philosophy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blatner.com\/adam\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}