on becoming a more coherent person

as i get older, there are some themes that are becoming increasingly clear as important. across place and time, certain questions, certain journeys seem to be ubiquitous and worth pursuing. one of these is what i currently understand to be the journey towards becoming a more coherent person (not my words).

the belief that people “an identity” that is singular seems to not align with how i see the world working (not a unique idea). our identities are formed in relationship to the people we’re around at any given moment and where we are. when i’m in the south, my drawl (sp?) comes back. when i’m at mit, my academic training comes through (sometimes lol). when i’m home (for better or worse) i become like my younger self(selves).

this, imo, is totally fine because it’s just how life is.

but i think one of the most significant goals a human could work towards is finding coherency between the multiple identities they carry. maybe that means being the same in all places at all times. i’m not convinced of that though i could be.

but to be true to one’s core in all the ways identity shows up to me seems key.

i’ve heard this in a couple of other ways from different people, too. my friend, maureen, believes that the process of knowing one’s values and living by them is an entire lifetime of work. and if that’s all you did over the course of your life, finding out how to be increasingly authentic, in her book that would be a life well lived.

krista tippett says something similar, but from a different angle. her tack on it is the quest to discovering what it means to be human and then working towards becoming it. i think i’ve heard her say on several occasions that the journey towards authenticity & coherence is a significant part of that. it doesn’t necessarily mean all the parts of homogenous; they just need to make sense when together.

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340w / 11min / 9min