Identity Unmasked

 

November 19, 2020

 

My grandmother used to say, "Oh would some pow'r give us the gift /To see ourselves as others see us!" It is the conclusion to Robert Burns' poem "To a Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church." Though my grandmother died 15 years ago, I can still hear her saying it.  The lilt in her voice, her Scottish heritage somehow enlivened in the Scot's tongue. My mom will quote it to me now--often when I admit to having been embarrassed--the funny thing is that when she says it, I still hear my grandmother's (her mother's) voice.  Grandmama's cheerfulness in the kitchen as she sang silly rhymes or quoted poetry is a memory that will not fade.  The vision it conjures is one I will identify with peaceful afternoons spent watching her work wonders in the kitchen.

Remembering her makes me ponder what memories my children might one day identify with me.  The word "identity" is something that has come to the forefront of my consciousness during this 2020 election season.  "With what party do you identify?" is a question that is often raised in early November, especially during a Presidential election year. Now, thanks to Facebook and other social media, no one need guess a person's politics.  In our ever increasingly polarized society, we are almost forced to take sides. Because of the unprecedented malignity of partisanship this cycle, I have spent time examining my identity, especially regarding my political beliefs.

Etymology has always interested me, and the word “identity” is no exception; it is formed from "the Latin adverb identidem 'again and again, repeatedly' which is itself a contraction of idem et idem ('the same and the same') and partly from the Late Latin essentitas,  a translation of the Greek word for identity" ("historical definition of identity" dictionary.info).  What this means to me is that our identity is who we are at our essence.  And that our identity is determined by what we do again and again, like Grandmama with her cheery ditties in her small country kitchen preparing the best food I've ever eaten. Oxford Languages online dictionary defines identity as "the fact of being who or what a person or thing is." But to me, if identity is wrapped in what we do, it is less a fact of is than a process of becoming.

I just finished reading the comedy Harvey by Mary Chase.  It's a funny play about a man, Elwood, whose family is attempting to commit him to a sanitorium because he has a six-foot rabbit friend, named Harvey.  When Elwood's sister is mistakenly committed instead, she says "I always thought that what you were showed on your face" (p. 37).

With social media, it's even harder to “read someone's face.”  Masked identities are one of the well-known dangers of interacting on social media, but I think jumping on a prefabricated identity band wagon can be dangerous, too. In this political season of snap judgements, I elect to be extra careful in how I act, in what I choose to do repeatedly; thus determining with much thought what defines me.  If we are not careful, our chiming in with a political narrative without investigation can drown out the cries of those we have prejudged to be our enemies. For those who identify as Christians, we need to heed Colossians 3:12, and more importantly, choose to be this way again and again--identifying ourselves with Christ in his humility:  "Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness and patience."