What am I?

 We all have seen or heard prompts towards answering the age-old question Who am I?  phrases like "Know thyself" and "The unexamined life is one not worth living." have encouraged self-awareness and self-mastery throughout the ages. The subjective observation of self that the question lends to any person answering it, is a rich one that has been asked by the elite and powerful as well as the broken and surrendered.   Who am I? Encourages us to assess our nature, perhaps leading us to an understanding of our core self. The intimate interview with our own nature lent by the question may guide us to finding an orientation of our personal life. 

                                                                               


However, If we are going to understand the totality of our personality and truly hold a position of self-mastery, we cannot stop once we have answered the ever popular question Who am I?, we must also answer the question What am I?

The question what am I?  forces us to look at the association we have with other people, no longer are we answering a question about who we are, but instead seeking to understand what is that who.  What am I in relation to others?  Without this knowledge, required to manifest the interaction that speaks truths and realities we are more prone to superficially connections such as work and sport.   Not due to a callous heart, or an offensive stance, but simply because we truly do not know who and what we are and therefore don't connect with others of a similar stance. 

Much like the west with our freedoms and fights for freedom has provided a great advantage in answering the first question "Who am I", Asia has had a great advantage in answering this second question what am I.   China's Communist government, Hymilian countries past monarchies, and deep religious beliefs of orientation have opened space for its people consider the more societal question what am I,    What am I serves to help us understand our role and function.  

If you want to know thyself, we are blessed to have the opportunity in a democratic republic to answer both the first and second questions and come to a fuller understanding of who and what we are.  So don't stop at who am I also ask yourself what I am.