Lewis Hyde's The Gift is blowing my mind a little this week, in the best way. Hyde goes into depth about gift economies, the gifted state, etc. The part I can't put down though is when he applies his theories/research thus far to Walt Whitman's poems particularly a section on self.
"Let up again to feel the puzzle of puzzles, and what we call being" Walt Whitman
Over and over I'm fascinated with how others identify with themselves over their lifespan. I particularly like the way Whitman looks at it through blades of grass. The grass represents the impermanence of our identity. It decays and then forms anew, connected and yet not the same. Hyde notes that at the moment of change it is hard to distinguish between birth and death.
I can point to times in my life when my identity has been reborn from its previous decayed ashes. Like a phoenix being reborn. Usually this marks transitions when I moved from something to another. A new city. A new role in life. Through my actions or those of others a change has occurred and my old identity has given way or fused with something else to create the new. It's usually uncomfortable. Even if I'm contented with this new/evolved identity it can take quite some time to understand how these new puzzle pieces fit together. And it usually seems that no sooner do I figure that out, suddenly I'm aware of more puzzle pieces that I've yet to fit into the picture.
Being a Force for Good 