Over the years my collection has grown, with pieces added sometimes due to circumstances and sometimes slipping in unnoticed or uninvited. Viewed in isolation, each entry seems almost two dimensional and incomplete. One might even label them as pathetic and small. Yet taken in together, they make up the me that I have become. Looking over the assembly, some of the most commonly held and distinctive include:
- The scholar - My most confident persona, one that is both vocal and assured. It is the skin in which I feel most comfortable and at peace within myself.
- The hermit - The suit I wear when I feel beat up and rejected by the world. Whenever I feel the need to escape to lick my wounds, to come back to equilibrium, or to shut out the sense of defeat and hopelessness, I slip into this one.
- The judge - A presence that comes upon me in times of weakness when I want to feel better about myself. The judge is negative and fault-finding and nasty.
- The juvenile - I do not always act with the mien of someone my age. I typically shun costumes woven with erudite threads in serious colors. Every once in a while I can be silly, loquacious, and playful.
- The parent - All the way up through my mid-to-late 20s, I sensed that I would never have a family of my own. Now I am the father to a 17 year old daughter. My father role is definitely not without flaw and fault, but it is the one that I am most proud to have added.
There have been a few pieces that through the years that I have had to retire or expunge. At one point they were so familiar to my senses and so part of my routine that I could not image not stepping into them again. However, life evolves and changes, sometimes by our own actions and sometimes by the actions of others. As we go through different phases our strength or protection is provided by different attitudes or behaviors. Yet whether in season or out of season, each piece in our menagerie defines who we are at certain moments.
