Al Gore and Princess Diana
I’ve loved watching Al Gore become himself. For years, he was seen as wooden, lifeless, blood-less. Some of that perception was due to Republicans and lazy comedians, but there was also some truth in it. Despite his public demeanor, the people I met during those years who knew Al Gore uniformly said that in private he was funny, relaxed, personable and passionate. Ever since he “lost” the 2000 election, we’ve all seen the private Al emerge in public. And it’s been wonderful to watch.
I realized this morning that I felt the same way about Princess Diana once she left Prince Charles. Freed from her marriage and her royal position, she began to become herself. I mourned her more than I thought I would because her story was so promising and so suddenly incomplete. Likewise, John Lennon, whom I loved as a Beatle, I loved more when he left the Beatles. I still mourn his being murdered while still in his New York chrysalis.
At the same time, I’m suspicious of the metaphysics implicit in the notion of “becoming who you are.” It smacks of essentialism, as if we have a nature or destiny that is fixed. Yet, it is a nearly inescapable perception. There are changes that we can only describe by talk of someone becoming who she is. And even if the metaphysics is off, the process is joyous to behold.
does it help to think of it as what happens when people stop being what they’re not?
When Gore starts acting like there’s a crisis – i.e., starts attending these shindigs via video instead of via private jet, starts downsizing his own personal energy consumption (etc, etc) – I’ll consider taking it seriously. Until then, I’ll continue to look at this as a socialist agenda with a pretty face.
I think Lloyd’s nailed it – not so much becoming something (which is a weird and slippery idea) as stopping doing something. Which probably also explains why I disagree with you about John Lennon – maybe Epstein screwed with his head, but so did the acid and so did Yoko (oh, so did Yoko). He was still a work in progress when he was killed (much more so than TAFKAPD).
I agree. I like to think of it as “knowing that who you are is really okay.”
becoming who you are means only, recognizing oneself as awareness, losing (or loosening) the conditioned limitations associated with ego and limiting self-concepts resulting from conditioning…. purely expansive in all directions to do this
fortunately for this we have the metaphysical concept of bad faith, which i think is useful, especially with how we can look at gore
When I masturbate I like to lie on my stomach with my legs spread wide apart & my knees up. My pussy gets wet before I squirt & groan.
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