How Many Me’s Are There?

The Ego would have us believe that there is a “me” that is unique, special, and gives purpose to our lives.But is that really true?  And do we really need a “me” to make sense of our lives?  It kinda runs counter to our other efforts to become “selfless” in our service to others.  And the paradox teaching of Jesus when he said,  “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.”  How important am “I”?  And what must I say or do to affirm my value or how many people need know me to confirm the “me”?  The social media of Facebook and Tweeting and You-tube would have us believe that being heard and seen offers us greater self importance and American Idol it’s pinnacle. 

Here is my premise.  There are many “me’s”.  And there is no just one me.  Our lives constantly evolve and unfold and that to define ourselves by some past bad or good experience is futile and just plain an illusion. Life is fluid and not solid.  Like a kaleidoscope, every changing moment and turning event is different and we are never the same.  Our self importance lies elsewhere. 

With laughter, I love to read the story in John chapter 9 of the bible where Jesus heals a blind man and then the town cannot figure out who the blind man is now.  They cross examine the man, then his parents, and then again the man.  And he kept telling them, “It is me!  It is me!”.

The neighbors therefore, and they which before had seen him that he was blind, said, Is not this he that sat and begged?Some said, This is he: others said, He is like him: but he said, I am he.   John 9

Some years ago I sat across the table  at a family dinner from a favorite cousin with whom I had spent a lot of my teen years.  He hadn't  a clue who I was.  Half way through the meal he was shocked to learn it was “me”.  Where was the “me” that he knew twenty years before?  So I must ask; if the “me” is constantly changing, which “me” is really “me”?  I don’t say this to confuse anyone.  I raise the point to suggest spending any time in thought and energy trying to invent or reinvent who we are is wasted.  All part of the illusion that Ego would have us believe.  Just about the the time we decide we can define who we are, it changes.  Again!

One of my favorite movies is The Natural with Robert Redford and Glen Close.  Redford plays the role of a young aspiring baseball player that wants to be known as “the best that there ever was.”  But that dream was destroyed when he was shot by a strange woman.  Sixteen years later, he is still haunted by the loss of this goal that would have affirmed the “me” he always wanted to be.  

In a scene in the hospital where Redford is lamenting his loss of the “me” he always wanted to be, Glen Close gives a wise and telling response to Redford’s self-pity.  She says, “I believe we are all given two lives.  The one we learn with and then the one we live with afterwards.”  Only later does Redford learn that Close had given birth to his son and then had gone about the work of raising a beautiful son in a self-less manner for the past sixteen years. 

For a long time, I bought into this “two lives” concept.  But now I realize that it is much much bigger than just two lives.  There are many ‘me’s”; hundreds, if not thousands; and defining that “me” loses all importance.  That letting go process allows us to Be Here Now and celebrate the true gift of being alive and sharing it with one another.  It changes our daily experience.  And the wisdom we gain and the path we walk in Being Nobody & Going Nowhere, leads us on the most noble exciting discovery and journey of all.