Because this patient was a professional baseball player, and by losing his arm, his professional baseball playing would come to a tragic end. And the patient said something like this without baseball, I am nothing. My whole identity is me as a baseball player. That's what I am. I'm a baseball player. If I'm not playing baseball, I am nothing. I would rather be dead. Now, that episode had an absolutely profound impact on me. I've spent days, weeks
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 4:23
And it really helped me love the distinction of the Sabbath to the rest of the week, the distinction of different kinds of foods and different moments of reverence. And so it caused me to kind of look in the mirror and say, wow, I'm a Jewish person. That's why I identity. Then I knew I was gay at a young age, and I was like, oh, I think I'm gay. I wanted to not lead with those things
Arya Sunyata
@theheartdrive · 5:00
Well, it depends on the moment. I don't really believe identity per se as anything but an artificial construct. And yes, we are hardwired as children with certain things by certain ages. Neurologically, there are definite milestones in our development. So we definitely have some fixed points in identity. But with sufficient change in your life, even those things will change tastes, interests, people, relationships, the kinds of things you gravitate towards. So I'm with you. Identity is really just a construct
If someone questions or challenges a belief and that is a part of our identity, it shakes the very foundation of who we are. And so, over the last few years for myself, I've been wondering, okay, well, who am I? That's the question I've shifted to. And now the way that I see myself, it's sort of become my, let's say, mo or my mission statement isn't quite right
Wren .
@aBirdieOnaWire · 4:48
You. I remember one time hearing a joke that goes something like, there's these four guys who are playing golf, and one of the guys says to the other, oh, I didn't know you were a golfer. I guess they were acquaintances or something
Arya Sunyata
@theheartdrive · 5:00
But if the child has absolutely no idea that he is identical to his father in all of these things, he lives in a state of unself conscious expression of those innate qualities, right? However, say you're Houstonian, and I'm going to go with a very extreme example here and you have a certain life and you know, you know, a certain reality. Now go and get thrown into a concentration camp
J.L. Beasley
@Her_Sisu · 2:52
What is my identity? When you mention that and I think about identity, I think about knowing who I am. And I am a woman. I am am a divine woman, a soul traveling this current plane we call Earth. I am a woman of integrity. I am a woman who values and loves and respects herself. I am a woman who, because of the value of myself, I show others how to treat me by how I honor and respect myself
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:10
And that's the scary thing about identity, is when you don't identify with something, someone else will identity you unbeknownst to your movements, but that's something you can't control, right? I've talked about this on Swell, about labels and the danger of us falling in love with these labels. And I think, sadly, it's just our human condition. Republican, Democrat, military, heterosexual, lesbian, autistic, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera
Arya Sunyata
@theheartdrive · 3:52
A child sees a bird and doesn't know what it is, but he experiences the bird and then when he names it, he kills it. So in some ways, I guess that kind of falls in line. There's a lot of love of categorization and just breaking things down into labels. And when I moved to the US as a teen, I came from Europe and there was no particular categorization in the high school I came from. Right
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:05
But with predeterminism it's kind of scary because no matter what you do, you are always meant to do what was chosen for you. So when you had talked about the situation with America and the labels yeah, it's very interesting because it's a certain individuality that identity comes with that makes it so alluring is to be unique. But if we were to live in more of a socialist society, it would not be so much about uniqueness and individuality, but what can we do as a whole?
Arya Sunyata
@theheartdrive · 5:00
You're going to have genetics and you're going to have where you are. But ultimately someone who can transcend all that would be what they call an enlightened person. I don't think you would be going backwards. I think it's a pinnacle of human beings
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 4:15
And as we grow and get older, with more agency, we begin to unravel this identity that has been forged in some ways by our own will, but also from the will of others in nature and nurture, as you're describing. So it's interesting, though, to separate the identity or personality away from one. You become enlightened, as you would say, a Buddha
Arya Sunyata
@theheartdrive · 4:59
Rather, I'd think of it more as a core filter, something that you use to find the tools to build your identity out of. Also, I'd like to clarify that Eastern philosophy isn't necessarily spirituality per se. It's just as complex as Western philosophy. What Eastern philosophy does often include is an extra dimension that Western philosophy died, he refuses to acknowledge. And that really kind of comes from the Greek school of thought
Aayan Banerjee
@BasTalk · 4:25
And therefore when they step out into the wide world and meet with people who come from a different set of conditioning, then in many a times it raises conflict, many a times it's question, many times it's familiarity and happiness. And that is the fabric of our society. Evolution suggests that we become more mature and learn to live harmoniously, coexist peacefully for example. Those who believe in identity and those who don't, can we not coexist peacefully?
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 5:00
It's like a community. You know, everyone it's a community. And a lot of people find their identity in the school. They go to school spirit. We cheer for our team. We wear our colors. It's our school, our school, our school. And I'm the one who immediately like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. No, my identity is not this school
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 4:48
I don't believe I've ever had the opportunity or privilege to have a conversation with you on Swell. So thank you so very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to reply now. Because we haven't had a conversation in the past, it means there are a lot of unknowns. So I will not give give you a hard time for ignoring my quote by Prince because I am greatly offended and that others who have had conversations with me ignored it
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 5:00
But you said something along the lines about how identity, if you have this strong identity and you really grab onto it, you really hold onto it. The minute someone challenges anything connected with your identity, whether it's an ideology, it's a belief, whatever, as soon as someone challenges it, you become absolutely shaken. You become absolutely disturbed. You become absolutely bothered. And on our culture today, it's like everyone's run around and grabbed an identity
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 5:00
I'm not trying to follow a script, so hopefully that's okay with you that I'm taking up my reply, doing that. But I really want to thank you for asking those very insightful questions and putting me on the spot. You've given me much to think about, and I greatly appreciate it
Heather Reynolds
@HeatherR · 4:32
Even for somebody who says that they will not be put in a box, which your confidence at saying that may put you in a box. But even for that, I think in some ways it does exist. Depending again on how we define it, I suppose it could be both helpful or harmful. I don't know. What do you think? I heard a lot of identifying and your responses about not wanting to have an identity or not understanding the concept of identity
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 2:24
Heather. Heather. Heather. Heather. Heather, we have to talk. We have to really talk about this friendship, this relationship, this co hosting thing, because something went way wrong. Look, your job is to reply by saying, look, every one he's right. No, everyone you misunderstand him. He's right. You're supposed to back me up. You're supposed to take my side in everything
Dewuan .
@FryedOreo · 1:05
I'm putting you in the hot seat. So if you don't respond, everyone now knows that you won't respond. So the next time I respond, they will see the pattern too. Therefore giving you an identity that you didn't want, but you still have a hand in creating for yourself. Happy hump day, sir
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 4:54
Like, I was going to do the movie marathon, which all fell apart because in the middle of that, then I was in another country, for crying out loud. So that didn't quite work out the way I had envisioned. So I do apologize if anyone feels slighted, if anyone feels that I have ignored them, if anyone feels I have overlooked them
And then how do we even how do we have a sorry. More visuals. There's this when I think of communication and conversations and exploring of ideas, it kind of sound weird, but bear with me two minds in this vicinity and there's like these tendrils of color and swirls and smoke and so on. And we're reaching towards each other and finding understanding in this space in between
And yet again, I dropped the Prince reference. Sorry. I'm so clueless when it comes to the pop culture of my era, let alone things today just with it. Sorry
Maybe if you put them in a box somewhere. Okay, say if you a child was born and you keep him in this room by himself without any human activity, you just give him food and water and you do this for maybe 30 years, what will be the outcome? What would he or she turn out to be? Would they even have an identity? Now, you have to remember this individual that was locked inside this room for 30 years
Trevor Hammack
@tjh · 2:04
So I want you to spend five minutes telling us about the articles you have written, what your favorite article is, what you think your best article is. I want I want to know everything inquiring minds want to know, and I don't know. Did the rest of you know that Christina was an author on the Medium app? You can go look her up on Medium. If you use the Medium app and look at a number of the articles she has written, there's a couple from 2022
And in today's world, if you want it to be seen or heard or engaged with, a lot of the times you sort of have to go the extra mile, whether that's creating clickbait titles or Snappy controversial content or oneupsmanship videos or photos or whatever it might be. And I don't care to play those games. I really don't care. And so I'm more interested in ideas and exploration and discovery and having a back and forth
Isaac Murden
@Imedia66 · 0:42
I want to just say thank you for your message. For many people, identity is important. Unfortunately, I had to learn how to live outside of my identity. It was important for me to understand the importance of living outside, outside of my identity, not letting what I do and the people that I affect or the people that I help identify me as a person. My job is separate from who I am as a person. So I just want to thank you
Taha Abbas
@taha_oracle · 4:55
So most people which we consider as normal, we see that they are fit in certain boxes that are accepted in the society, and that helps them live a linear life. For me personally, as an artist, as a creative person, it may not resonate with everyone, but in this stage especially, I have now realized that I'm really fluid, and there are parts of me that I cannot change
Mark Francis Rahaman
@MarkR · 5:00
You know, I'm a boxing trainer, I'm biomechanic specialist, personal trainer, a conditioning coach, these massage, massage, sports, massage therapist. So this is all within the fitness industry. So that identity is who I am when I'm at work. And that shapes my behavior in a lot of ways when I'm working. But I can easily drop that identity, you know, when I'm not working. And nobody would ever know. That's what I do
Mark Francis Rahaman
@MarkR · 4:47
People are trying to break that down right up until the fight and throughout the fight, the ringwalk, everything. People are trying to break you down and crack the identity. As I say, sometimes it's stronger than others. I identity as a Londoner. I was born in London and I've lived in London all my life. I've lived in other places. I lived in California for a little while, but mostly London, and I identify with being a Londoner