I’ve always found it difficult to ‘identify’ by my political beliefs, as the older I get, the more my beliefs get jumbled, ideas mixed up, and the labels I once wore, no longer seem to stick.
I want a bit of this, and a bit of that. I want ‘both’ not ‘either’. I want to transform, combine and challenge the ideas of others – to meet with my foes, and fight with my friends.
I want a constantly evolving and tailored set of beliefs, not an off-the-rack set of catch phrases.
To meet in the middle, to embrace uncertainty.
I want the freedom to be wrong, without the upheaval of everything else that I’ve done right.
No. I cannot hit a home run with every swing, nobody can - I just want to leave the conversation better than I found it.
I want to be defined and judged for who I am and what I’ve done; not by others who look like me.
I want to define myself by who I am. Not as a feminist, an MRA or egalitarian, as left, or right, liberal or conservative.
The label I want is ‘George’.
And I wish more people would do the same. To identify as ourselves, not as others or as groups.
So what do you call yourself?
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Images by Kendrick Fernandez, Fleur-E and Adam Wilson from Unsplash