it’s like when you really know who you are,

you don’t overthink it,

it’s like a cat,

you know it’s not a dog,

you know it’s not a mouse,

you know it has whiskers and a tail and a smug look on its face

you’re not CONSIDERING if it’s better than other animals or worse, or in what ways

you already KNOW most of that — and the rest of it doesn’t unduly bother you

 

when you don’t know who you are,

you spend all this time stressing over ways in which you’re inadequate

and then the rest of the time gloating over the ways in which you’re special and superior, even

 

I mean how could you not?

You want to survive,

That’s among your primary programs

So you’re trying to figure out the attributes of this entity that you’re striving to protect, if you will, which is yourself,

and how those attributes relate to the rest of the world

 

and if you KNEW those things, and felt secure in who you are — you wouldn’t worry about that

You wouldn’t really think about it,

It would be boring, really

There’s so much more to explore than the parochial world of “ME”

 

*

you should get to know you

then almost forget you

you know?

 

if you don’t know you — those problems should emerge

so better know you

 

but then forget you

it’s not healthy if you don’t forget yourself

it’s parochial, it’s narrow-minded, it’s so… limiting, stuffy

 

it’s a bit paradoxical isn’t it

I mean when you’re “figuring yourself out”, you’re naturally focused on yourself,

but really it’s not paradoxical,

you figure something out — SO THAT you don’t have to worry about it any more

 

and of course you are not in a vacuum,

surely the entire construct of the self is relative to the world. Otherwise there would solely be.. existence

so it’s really about exploring this relationship between you — and the rest of the world — from every angle you can,

with an open mind, curiosity

 

oh but then again surely it is also just you observing you

even utterly isolated — you still notice that you experience fear, and excitement, and desire and acquisitiveness, and anger and impatience, and curiosity

WHO IS THAT?

 

but I digress

if you keep harping on the same old stories about yourself,

then you don’t really know yourself, you’re not really figuring yourself out,

it should BORE you, by now

clearly something compels you into this unproductive loop

you should get a bit impatient with yourself,

life is short, it’s a waste of time thinking about nothing but yourself

figure it out