Popeye, right? We are who we are, we do what we do ,we think the way we think and we like what we like because of every experience we have ever had. Doesn’t matter if we thought of that experience as negative, or positive, doesn’t matter if it was painful or joyful; every experience we have ever had is all wrapped up and gift-wrapped as us today.
We are not the same persons we were 15 years ago, or 15 months ago, or 15 minutes ago, even who we were 15 seconds ago. Change comes to us all because we have new experiences each moment which add to all the experiences we have had previously creating a new person with new ideals and views, and yet sometimes we stand our ground and say “I cannot be someone I am not.” Isn’t that ironic, since who we are is a work in progress. When we attempt to hold ourselves to a vision of what we were at a particular time in our lives we cannot help but become all stopped-up, even angry. One part of us wants to move into who we have become, another part of us wants to hold on to an idealized version of who we were; the result of this conflict is often anger: anger at ourselves and anger at others.
Popeye the Sailor Man might have gotten away with saying “I yam what I yam” but Popeye was a cartoon. You are flesh and blood and an every changing, ever expanding entity. Embrace the new you who blooms each day. Yes it can be a little scary, but oh so rewarding.
