The Other Me

"I held a moment in my hand, brilliant as a star, fragile as a flower, a tiny sliver of one hour. I dripped it carelessly, Ah! I didn't know, I held opportunity." ~Hazel Lee

Once last century when I was a young teenager a friend and I went to the movies. Attending movies was commonplace back then. It was nothing for a teenager to attend movies at least twice a week. This particular movie made an impression upon my young mind. The story revolved around Eve, who had a split personality, several split personalities in fact. Maybe you recall "The Three Faces of Eve"?

As I grew older I realised that this movie was an exaggeration of a severe mental illness, but it did make an impression. Eve battled with her other selves.

But perhaps the story wasn't such an exaggeration after all? Don't we all have several facets of our personality; there is the face we cultivate for public consumption. Some folks believe this personality to be their true self.

Then there is the face we wear at home, the face our loved know; the face that warns young family members they have overstepped the line, or the face that closes off when an unsavoury conversation begins at the dinner table.

Recently, while visiting my home town, I became aware that the person I am now is not the same as the person I was when I left almost five years ago. Back then I cultivated the person I believed others thought I was. Was it me? Eighty-five percent of that person exists today, but the other fifteen percent is enhanced by the distance between me and those I grew up with. The new me is not as structured, though old habits do die hard.

This Blog represents one facet of the other me. Take the opportunity to wander along the lane of discovery with me.