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Yeah, I have an issue with how so many people discuss and perceive identity nowadays.

I wouldn't say I “chastise” myself, though I can see how it might appear so. If anything, I’m only upset about how much time I wasted. I wish I had discovered literature and began writing earlier in life. Oh well.

I'm curious about the rebellious youth vs. Self-critical adulthood theory. It sounds interesting. I'll have to poke around the web.

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A very powerful read. I like the Updike quote. A very wise girlfriend once said to me that we're the embodiment of everyone we've every one we've ever met.

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This is a great read. A wonderful exploration into identity. And congratulations on getting sober.

I’m more than 3 and a half years sober also - and so I could really relate to a lot of what you was saying.

Thanks

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"This is why I loathe my resume—blue-collar and plebeian—it reflects nothing of the person I’ve worked so hard to become these last five years."

This! Who is that person on my CV, dammit? I don't know the guy. I don't even like him. No wonder he's unemployable.

Loved this post Corey.

Identity is so often just a mask. Worse still, if it's something others have assigned for us.

Some would say that the best meditation is the self inquiry "Who am I?" and then listening to the silence for answers.

Rejecting them until we get to the core observer, the nothingness and allness behind all the layers, ideas, relationships and the masks, could take eternity. Which is sort of the point.

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Nice ! I was also a library dwelling homeless dude who quit all drugs and alcohol after a rough but educatiotal six year blast...

I feel my writings about that were very cathartic

Gutterboss and Gutterboss rises .

Also Heavy influenced in that library by Jack K and Bukowski and HST !

Interesting!

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Aug 26Liked by Corey Smith

You are gifted and a teacher. Hold that thought. I’ll be reading.

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Aug 26Liked by Corey Smith

Diving into who we are at any given time is never accurate but it’s always interesting. Cathartic, powerful read.

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It is a real pleasure to read something in which the concept of identity is not automatically shackled and chained to a belief system which holds that racial or ethnic or sexual orientation is the alpha and omega of selfhood and identity.

Please don't chastise yourself for doing drugs and/or booze to excess. Instead apologize to yourself for harming yourself by too many drugs. You must cherish yourself to be good to yourself

I once read that intense youthful rebelliousness is often followed by an unduly self-critical, penitent, and straight jacketed adulthood.

Some obervors held that this was especially pronounced in Germany, where young people, allegedly, had riotous, raucous and rowdy teenage which were succeeded by guilt ridden, obseqious years in which people became obedient fodder for dictators.

Please go easy on the self criticism.

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