Who are you

Do you know who you are? Do you? Do you really??? Oh, I know you think you know, and when you look in the mirror you see you, but beyond that, beyond your close circle of friends (accquaintenences... that's probably spelled wrong...I'm relying way too much on spell checkers these days), how can anyone be sure it's really you?

You see, there's the real you, the one you can pinch, and there's the data based you. That's the one that exists in the rest of the world that can't see, feel & touch you. Let me give you an example of what happens when those two you's intersect.

You're on vacation. You're from (insert your home town here), and you're driving along trying to make another 100 miles before you fall completely asleep at the wheel. It's 2 AM and you're 3 states away from home. You're speeding a bit & you see the flashing red/blue trooper's lights in the rear view mirror, so you pull over.

You're awake, now, that's for sure. As the trooper approaches, you roll down the window & put on your warmest smile.

The trooper shines his flashlight in your face & says, flatly, "license & registration." You comply. He looks it over & sees that you don't appear threatening, (that's the real you coming through...charming, nice) and he warms a little. "You've got a tail light out. I'm going to go back to my car & just write out a warning," he says, "and just run the license & registration on the computer, it's routine, I'll be right back".

Great, you think, I've charmed him...he's a good judge of people, he can see the real me.

A couple of minutes later, he's back & his posture is entirely different. His hand is resting on his gun, and he says, brusquely "get out of the car & keep your hands where I can see them!" You throw up your hands in a "what the hey" gesture & he grips the gun, ready to draw it. Your mind is racing. You think, "What's happening, here?'

What just happened here, friends, is that the real (charming) you just intersected with the data based you that doesn't live in your house in your home town. He/she lives in the trooper's computer, and since the trooper doesn't know the real you (your charming demeanor a few minutes ago, notwithstanding) he must rely on who that computer data base says you are.

Now, let's say for the purpose of little story here, your identity was stolen. Not the kind like in the cheesy TV commercials where they sing cutesy songs about credit cards, etc, but the kind you don't hear about where they get enough of your records to get all their ID's in your name, and then commit a couple of crimes and do some really bad stuff...the kind of stuff that makes our trooper friend nervous enough to be grabbing for his gun when you move fast. He thinks he's captured a bad guy, & you're going to lock-up. You say," hey, you've got the wrong person" and he's not buying it.

You see, the data based you is the "bad guy", and he only knows the data based you. How you gonna prove him wrong??? Show him your ID??? Think about that...as you sit in county lock up.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story. -T

Someday...

Someday I'l get this figured out. Someone actually found me, and I still haven't fugured out how to find myself. I suppose that shouldn't really bother me. There's lots of things in the world (people, too) that I haven't yet figured out. I keep thinking that I have lots of time to do that, but the truth is, I probably don't. Time seems to be slipping past me at an increasing rate. I wish I could step up my appreciation of the world around me at that same increasing rate. I'm working on it.
Tomorrow I travel half way across the country by car. I'll try not to miss anything. (right!) Ok, I'll try to absorb more than the last time I took this route...probably more realistic.

Maybe I'll have somethingt to write about when I get back. Maybe no one will care...but maybe someone will. I hope so.

A first time for everything

This is something I've toyed with for a while, now, and a new friend inspired me to take the initial step, one that is taking much longer to do than I thought. Not because of anything internal, but rather because of the external forces associated with my learning curve. Just getting this set up has taken much longer than I thought, and I haven't even dealt with daunting task of figuring out where I'm going with this now that I've set it up.

Oh, well, you've got to start somewhere, right? The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, blah, blah, blah... probably not the first overused quote I'll toss out, but at least it's apropos. (That doesn't look like it's spelled right, but I checked it out.)

It seems to me that this might be a good forum to let some of the stuff that's been cooped up in my head seep out into the real world. Whether anyone else cares or even reads it...now that's a whole 'nother thing all together.

Well, there it is, folks. (for anyone who finds this) Stay tuned for whatever dribbles out of the pipeline of thoughts seeping from my (not yet) atrophied brain. And thanks, Erin, for helping me to open the valve.