Just One Person

What if we were all just one person? No, I don't mean what if we were all exactly the same as one another, not possessing individual identities. How boring would that be? I mean what if we were the same person at the store as we were in our homes? The same person at school and at work? The same person at church on Sunday as we were at a party on a Friday night?

This is a topic that has come to mind frequently for me lately in this wonderful summertime when I've had the chance to take some quiet moments to do some self-evaluation. The other day I told a friend and mentor of mine while I was at a play rehearsal that I was sorry that if I was acting less than professional in her presence. She told me that it was no problem at all and that if I was comfortable enough to be the same person around her that I was all of the time than she felt like that was just right. Than she said something that I'd heard before but never really thought deeply about: "Isn't it remarkable that we sometimes hold things inside to some and then end up unleashing those negativity's on the ones that we care about the most, our families and closest friends? The ones that we love the most are sometimes the only ones who get to see the worst and the best in us." I instantly thought "this goes right along with my goal to live a transparent life."

Than a teacher of mine mentioned in a lecture the Greek meaning of the word hypocrite as we briefly touched on a historical figure who had been less than truthful in their dealings. So I looked it up and he was right:

hyp·o·crite

  [hip-uh-krit]

Origin: 1175 Greek hypokritḗs a stage actor,hence one who pretends to be what he is not.

noun

1.

a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.

2.

a person who feigns some desirable or publicly approved attitude, especially one whose 

private life,opinions, or statements belie his or her public statements.

The fear that comes along with becoming just one person is that there is a darker side to each of us that we don't want to reveal to the world.

But what if that "darker side" was really just our misunderstood side, our misinformed side? Or what if hiding that part of us only made things worse, like an old moldy dish in the refrigerator that we just stuff further back on the shelf and tolerate the smell of instead of actually taking the time to clean up and throw out?

If we could truly learn to be the same person in all situations, we would never have to be afraid of anyone else taking our phones or computers away from us and looking at where we've been and who we've spoken to?

Last year I wrote a "personal creed" about how I was going to strive for happiness, and this was bullet point number 4:

I won't write, text, type, say, do, or think anything that I wouldn't want everyone to know about.

Is that hefty order? Absolutely! But its helped me to hold myself to a higher level of accountability. Have I been perfect? No way! But that doesn't stop me from trying. Let me know what you think.