With Your Ear Against the Earth

"When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life. He knows the 'why' for his existence, and will be able to bear almost any 'how.'"
-Viktor Frankl

This really annoying thing has been happening to me lately where, as I fall asleep, I think of relatively deep shit that I'd really love to think about during my Waking Life only to wake up and have no idea what in god's name it was. I am a bit concerned that I am my most thoughtful while I'm half-unconscious, but alas, whatevs. 

However, last night, I was prepared for this bullshit and had my cellular phone at the ready to take notes. And take notes I did. I thought about identity. It occurred to me that if and when you choose to identify as something, no one can take that thing away from you. When you identify with/as something, you are committing to the idea that that something is intrinsic to who you are. That even if you wanted to not be that thing, you'd have to keep being it anyway. I mean, okay. Can you imagine how much happier everyone would be if they identified as "lovable?" That would mean that even when someone is mean to you, you can say "well I know I'm lovable, so they're just wrong." Or if everyone identified as "beautiful?" That would mean so much. Every person could look at the millions of reminders of the "standard of beauty" (which obviously is stupid) and say to themselves, "well, I don't look like that, so there simply must be more than one way to be beautiful." The possibilities are endless.