To Be Oneself

When the world becomes flooded with anxiety and uncertainty, everyone can have existential moments of severe doubt and despair. Everyone becomes world weary at times and each of us has an inner Hamlet who must repeatedly question the meaning and purpose of life. Yet, as the ancient scribe took pains to inform us, the question of “to be or not to be” is not as straight forward as it might seem. “To be” does not simply mean to act or just “do something.” Nor does it mean, “I think, therefore I am.” To truly be turns out to mean more than simply acting or just thinking. Each time the question becomes “to be or not to be,” something essential and authentic is trying to awaken within us.

As fingerprints as well as footprints have always implied, human life exists in the particular, in the distinctive shape of the unique individual who bears an original soul within. Because each soul is by nature distinct from all others, it is each person’s singular way of seeing and being that is ultimately at issue. Because each person born is a unique being, to truly “be” means to be as oneself, to act in authentic ways. The issue is not simply the question of life or death; the real issue is not being fully alive, for that is also a kind of death. Thus, the real question is to be or not to be oneself. As Emerson put it, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

Typically, the dilemma of who we are is solved in too narrow a way. We limit ourselves to prescriptions of what others consider attainable and renounce the hidden potentials that our souls hint at all along. The problem is that we are each involved in a unique experiment and there is no formula or series of prescribed steps that can save us from the struggle to awaken more fully. The answer to the existential dilemma of being or not being cannot be found outside oneself. It is the unique inner life of the soul that needs to be found and become awakened within us.