Know Thyself

There are a lot of good people who are into self-examination or as the Oracle of Delphi calls 'knowing thyself'.  I already however, know thyself.  I don't have to go down to the river to find myself, I know where I am at right now.  Here, at the computer, wasting time writing on my blog.  In fact, there is nobody who I know better or even as well as myself.

I like fried chicken, I don't like brussel sprouts.  It is not about what is good for me or what is not.  Nor is it about why it should be one way or the other. I know what I like and that is about knowing thyself.

One day I woke up and realized I don't have to know anything remotely close to 'everything.  I don't have to have all the answers.  "I don't know" is legitmate to me. That is thyself.

I like the color red, I don't like the color pink.  I don't need to know why.  That's knowing thyself.

If I get angry because of what you did to me, then I got angry at you because of what you did to me.  I  don't have to go seven generations back and discover what a prior self experienced at the hands of their mother, or father. That's knowing thyself.  If you make me angry who really needs to know myself is you and what consequences you have just acquired and you won't have to go seven generations back.

Knowing thyself, to me, is being comfortable with myself.  I can play a pretty good role in a play.  I've done it.  But I don't have to play a role in life.  I don't have to 'fake it, to make it.'  I am not a corporate CEO nor an imbecile, somewhere in between I'd say.  I don't need to act any different around either one.  That's knowing thyself.

In a recent radio program they were talking about characteristic traits of soldiers who were coming back from Afghanistan and Iraq.  One of the traits was being overly observant.  Whats wrong with that?  I have the same trait from my years in prison.  I want to know everything that is going on around me.  My wife thinks I don't make enough eye contact with her when we dine out because I am always looking around.  That's knowing thyself.

One final point, and I know this will bring on a barrage of protestations.  I, who have experienced plenty of bad situations in my past, do not need to go back and dig them up and play with them like silly putty to redeem them in my life.  It is enough that God has redeemed them as only He can, I can't and don't need too.  That's knowing thyself.