Several weeks back, I made the declaration that the more labels a person adopts, the harder it becomes to be a person and know who you are. Multiple labels saddle a person with mental struggles that become physically exhausting. Each label comes with social responsibilities, cultures, and expectations that cannot be shirked as long as a person has adopted that label.
For example, I am a dual-service disabled veteran. Thus, I carry the cultures, expectations, and responsibilities of sailors and soldiers. Consider what the expectations of a soldier are, and that image is part of the identity and societal responsibilities for being a veteran soldier. Being disabled carries societal expectations, both mental and physical burdens. Consider the Marines, and every Marine is a Marine for life! You graduate basic training and earn the title Marine, and you will ALWAYS be a Marine! Again, that title and label hold societal expectations voluntarily onboarded, and never will a Marine lose the attitude and social expectations of Marines.
The same is true of every single label a person voluntarily chooses for themselves. The label will attract specific people into your social circles, but only as long as you willingly live the life expectations of that label. Each label selected will form identities and mental challenges to meet the social expectations, a heavy burden indeed!
In a recent Tik Tok video, a person proudly declares more than 50-labels, preferred adjectives and pronouns, and identities. The video lasted more than 3 minutes, and I felt sorry for the exertion this person will face every minute they have these identities onboarded. Another person watching this video declared that the subject claiming their labels was mentally ill; I agree with that sentiment. Why; because the subject will never know who they are because of the noise of the labels, which includes the social pressures, the responsibilities, and the expectations. I do not know the name of the person in the video, I would not share that video due to the privacy respect I have for others.
Who are you?
Even though current society in 2021 declares confusion between who and what a person chooses to be, not what are you. For example, I do not like, nor do I onboard, the identity of disabled. I am NOT disabled, handicapped, injured, and working on healing, but NOT disabled. Consider the power of words for a moment.
The transitive verb “dis” means to show disrespect, insult, or criticize. As a prefix, “dis” is defined as the opposite of something, depriving someone of something, excluding someone, or expelling someone. Thus, a disabled person is either being disrespected, insulted, or criticized, deprived, excluded, expelled, or is the opposite of able. Frankly, when we are made aware of the etymology of words, we are then more aware of why people choose to adopt or not adopt certain words and labels. Do we understand this problem of labels just from an etymological perspective?
Regardless of plasticization, words hold power over the mind. Words become identities, thoughts become things, and research supports that labels hurt mental processes and can permanently scar. Yet, who and what a person chooses as their identities are not considered a problem in current society or a mental illness. People’s choices reflect their identities to attract those in socially accepted circles.
Thus, who are you? Who do you choose to be? Are those identities sufficient? While not as important as who a person is, the last question ranks a close second. How many identities can you physically onboard and live successfully? As a fan of simplicity and a follower of the KISS rules, as detailed by Murphy, the god of perversity, I keep it supremely simple to protect my energy levels and allow my identity to shine through. Having only a few identities enables me to select social commitments, restrict the mental noise and exertions, and hold myself accountable to a few identities to grow as a person.
Returning to the Tik Tok video subject and their 50+ labels, identities, and preferred pronouns, we must ask, what is sufficient? A follow-on video by this person reflected the physical exertions from conforming to identities and social pressures. Worse, this person had onboarded several more labels and identities. They reflected the mental illness and physical drain caused by trying to live up to all the label responsibilities. An extreme example; unfortunately, no; the pressures to onboard labels and identities have grown exponentially, mental problems are too significant to quantify, and they are growing.
Not just in America, the confusion about who a person is, the identities, and their inherent loads, have become a global phenomenon. What are the mental health professionals doing; causing harm by not discussing the physical and mental exertions of onboarding too many identities. It is up to the individual and parents of minor children to understand and help learn and teach simplicity in labels allows growth as a person, not more identities, but less. Fewer identities provide freedom for growth, identity exploration and empower mental health, leading to improved physical health.
Identities
As a pre-teen, I struggled with the concept of my identity. Religion was a curse, my family was worse, and I did not know who I was, thus strangling what I could do or become. I got jealous of how my sister could get away with breaking the rules and thought I should be a girl. I struggled with wanting to be a girl for several years as I learned who I was and what I wanted to be. If this problem occurred right now, professionals would counsel me to adapt and change my body through drugs and surgery, compounding my identity problems. Yet, what helped, was getting to know me!
I had several people help me form an identity I could be comfortable living with as I explored my options, fought to understand my role and purpose, and embraced my potential. It took time, lots of time. It required patience with myself, a moral code I could live in, and a desire to learn—all of which I had to develop from scratch. My identity is forged in the fires of adversity, for the consequences of my choices during this time played a role in how I went to school, what I chose to learn, and where I found employment and socially accepted company. Some of those consequences hang around even all these many years later. Some consequences I have been able to live long enough to survive.
Worse, as I have learned more about myself, my identity has changed, bringing with it consequences of change. Music, movies, humor, education, and more are part of an identity that forms a life. Choices bring consequences; how we value those consequences (e.g., good/bad, profitable/unprofitable, etc.) will determine our eventual destiny towards understanding who we are, so we can become what we desire to see in the mirror. More lessons I had to learn, then and only then, could the value of religion be discovered, the value of family understood, and honor and pride and commitment to self appreciated as an identity to live. Crucial to this growth and development, I know when to cut social ties, drop music and movies into the trash, and I am imperfect in changing, but I have some lessons I would see others learn to avoid pitfalls.
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- Commit to learning using the question, “Who am I?” as a core principle to discovery.
- Allow yourself time to think, ponder, and consider before committing to an identity. I always wanted to be a soldier, but I loved the ocean. I did not understand the value of these paradoxical options, and by rushing headlong, I had to learn an identity after living that identity. Arduous path; know first, then adopt an identity. Let me try and simplify that with my favorite axiom, learned as an Emergency Medical Technician, “Never take your body where your mind has not traveled first!”
- Comfort is key. If you are not comfortable, your conscience tells you something is wrong. An identity should require physical strain and mental confusion. Yes, you can delude yourself for a time/ Ultimately, your conscience, spirit, intellect, whatever you call your inner voice, will break through and tell you your identity is not mentally acceptable. If your identity choice is not comfortable, it will affect your physical health negatively.
- Never stop learning; learning leads to change, and change is good!
- When in doubt, turn to lesson two, give yourself more time before committing to an identity.
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I love hard rock, big hair bands, and southern rock. Steel guitars, banging drums, and headbanging to an excellent beat are an identity with power. But headbanging gives me incredible headaches. Too much rock and roll, and I cannot think clearly, and the ability to control my thinking is paramount to me. Do I adopt the headbanging identity or not; sometimes, I am all in for a solid rock fest. Mostly, I listen to the inner voices and moderate my music. See, lesson two continues to hold power and lesson four keeps me thinking how much longer will I affect my identity with an uncomfortable identity with physical pain.
Choose carefully, evaluate often, and allow yourself the freedom to grow by not onboarding labels without due consideration. Please, consider your gender and biological sex as integral to your ultimate destiny and comfort. Before you are comfortable in your skin, you have to be comfortable in your mind! If you want to explore identities, explore, but explore smartly and be cognizant of the social responsibilities, expectations, and cultures inherent with an identity. Observe those with those identities closely for the consequences of thier identity.
I cannot betray a confidence, but I have witnessed how traumatic experiences can be the impetus for forcing an identity change. A close associate went to a party, had a mickey slipped into their drink, and woke to a new reality. The consequences of other people’s identities can negatively impact your identity, especially if you do not know who you are!
I have never been comfortable with the hard rock, headbanging social aspects of rock and roll identities. The illicit drug use, the promiscuous sexual encounters, and the extremes in living frankly scare the hell out of me! But, I love the music, and I love much of the wardrobes in this identity, even though I will NOT wear makeup and cannot play a musical instrument.
Life is a journey; travel safely using the axiom, “Never take your body, or anyone else, anywhere your mind has not already traveled.” Think, ponder, consider, and then act confidently.
© Copyright 2021 – M. Dave Salisbury
The author holds no claims for the art used herein, the pictures were obtained in the public domain, and the intellectual property belongs to those who created the images. Quoted materials remain the property of the original author.
If you are dead set on living a life devoted to the philosophy of, “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die,” there is nothing I can do to help you. Feel free to stop reading now. If you are suffering from the consequences of overeating, a hangover, and are feeling nauseous from being too merry on the merry-go-round of life, keep reading, we might have something for you to consider. If you are not one of the people described, you might want to consider continuing to read for some moral support.
Years later, when I heard the comment, “Decisions Do Determine Destiny,” I knew exactly what the speaker was talking about, for I had experienced this phenomenon. This is the first principle in need of understanding. If we live in the here and now, every behavior has an excuse, and depravity, abuse, murder, everything abhorrent can be excused for tomorrow we die—what a terrible way to live. When our choices do not have consequences, and those consequences do not have long-term effects, we, as vapid human beings, lose an eternal spark of goodness, a willingness to strive, and a desire for achievement.
All I ask is that you take a minute, think about what you want people to say about you after you leave a room, and then live the way you want to be remembered. I worked with a man who lived his principles, and I salute his willingness to live his principles. He was going to die at age 40, with a fifth of Jack Daniels empty by his head, an empty six-pack of Mountain Dew scattered around his bed and empty bags of Lay’s Dill Pickle potato chips on his blankets. He worked very hard to meet his end as he wanted while I knew him, and I have no doubts that he met his fate as desired—good guy, great worker, but not an example I would ever choose.
As a fourteen-year-old, I was wandering around an office supply store in Belfast, Maine, and came across a bookmark I thought had an interesting statement on it:
In the US Army, I noticed something powerful; when living in a Korean War-built Quonset hut, my fellow soldiers and I had moral problems, experienced depression, and struggled. But, when we moved into new barracks, many of these problems ceased almost immediately. Thus cementing a lesson, the environment plays a role in personal feelings and influences desires to change. In the US Navy, this was more poignantly learned. I slept in Crew Berthing Three, the rest of the engineering department slept in Crew Berthing Two, and I hated going in there. Between the smell, the lackadaisical attitude towards maintenance, and the general disorderliness of the compartment always left me feeling depressed. So, even though I slept in the same berthing as Deck Department, which included the Boatswains mates, the berthing spaces were neater, cleaner, and better all around. Environment matters and influences personal desire to change or not to change.
There are people who I have met who will never change. One comes readily to mind, I was homeless on the streets of Auburn, Washington, after leaving the US Army in S. Korea. I had a job but no place to stay. One night while wandering to keep warm, I met a homeless man who refused to change. He was homeless by choice, not because of any drinking or drug problem, not because he was not smart enough to get a job and improve his living conditions, but because he chose to be homeless. He said, “I am who I am, and I refuse to change just to please society.” A very intriguing thought occurred to me then and has repeated often, am I choosing to be homeless, or am I choosing to grow?
Case in point, an engineering shipmate of mine, was kicked out of Crew Berthing Two for smelly feet, which led to smelly shoes, which upset a lot of people in Crew 2. He was forced to come live in Crew Berthing Three. Why did he have stinky feet, a fungus was growing on his feet, and he had never been taught how to care for his feet. He could wash them 100 times a day, but because he did not know how to care properly for his feet, nothing would change, and his feet would stink. When my shipmate chose to change, we taught him about foot care, he went to medical and got some fungal cream, and he purchased new shoes and socks. Why were his feet not a problem in Crew Three; we had better, and took better care, of the ventilation system than Crew two.
How does a person change a system built by man; start with the environment, which in this situation are the processes, procedures, and methods of conducting work. A leader arrives and begins influencing people through how they perform their work. Then begins the fundamental operations of training to new standards, including ethical, moral, and logical processes and procedures written down. Then, that leader begins holding people, not written processes, accountable for their actions. Shortly every person will be faced with a choice, change or leave. Hence, cleaning and correction become a natural function of the environment, and change is made where many have claimed; change will never happen.
DNC-Consulting 