Beeeeeeee Yourself!

Whew, sorry for the delay everyone. I had a jam packed end of the week, as I mentioned in my last post. I got in about 18 hours of work in two days plus I've been keeping up with school, which is pretty crazy if you think about it haha. Also, no ideas have really been coming to mind lately, so it makes it all the harder to write an entry...

Actually, no ideas overall have really popped into my head, even today. So this entry is probably going to be a bit more on the rambling side rather than focused thought. Sorry to anyone that bothers!

Hm, well as some of you might know I'm sorta into sociology/social psychology. Just the way people interact and just the mental layer behind that is something that interests me. I figured today I'll just look at some obscure social topic, even though it'll probably be a shorter entry (That's what is up with the title, if anyone is wondering)... Oh well!

Even though it's definitely not as prevalent today, cartoons sometimes are meant to convey moral messages. Well, maybe moral isn't exactly the best word for it, but lessons that are important for just doing better in life. Of course, most cartoons today don't exactly have a positive life lesson, but more like an example of something that you shouldn't do, even though the characters have everything work out in the end...

Well, I guess one of the main "lessons" that I wanted to tackle today is the idea of being yourself. I'm pretty sure it's something that you've all heard... Even Genie in Aladdin tells Aladdin to "beeeeeeeee yourself" (I doubt many people actually remember that scene though haha). The basic idea is that we can't put on a facade, for we don't actually fool others, are even ourselves really for that matter. Thus, just be yourself and life will be that much simpler.

Sure, it's a good lesson and all, but my friend Timmy pointed out an interesting question: What does it mean to be yourself? Some of you may think this is a rather simple question, but it actually struck me as quite interesting as well... Let's try to clear up this situation with an example. Imagine that you meet someone that is quite outgoing. They have all the same interests, hobbies, etc. that you do. Yet, after hanging out with this person for a while, you realize that he changes depending on each person he meets. It seems as if he has a different mask to associate with each person, but doesn't have one true face that he seems to stick to. What does it then mean for him to be himself?

Some of you may simply think that his nature is that of being two-faced, to say the least. On one had, that seems rather harsh, for a sociable nature isn't exactly a bad thing. Maybe having multiple faces is, but then how do you qualify his true face? If his true face is being two-faced (wow, this is getting odd), then is that something that he should actually "be" then? How do you discover what your true nature is? For, one would think that it's not one's actual nature to have a negative character trait, or maybe that's just my own thoughts...

Well, maybe a better way to look at things is what if one's inherent nature is that of a negative character? Should you really "be yourself" then? It would seem like not the best thing to be constantly reinforcing questionable behavior...

Hmm, perhaps a better way to look at one's nature is to divide it up. Even though there's probably multiple ways to do this, let's take a shot in the dark and say a human can have an innate moral nature and in an innate personality nature. When people say "be yourself," they mean that you are supposed to be your innate personality nature (hmm, that sounds awkwardly worded), and not actually your innate moral nature, for most people believe that humans are sinful by nature, to say the least. That way, people can still be themselves while reconciling with other differences...

Yet, this definition seems to be kinda off... Sure, not being yourself morally can be a good interpretation, for it could be an indirect way to promote good moral behavior. Yet, it seems to beg the question in the sense that we still haven't established what one's personality nature is. It could just be overall personality, but that could be linked back to the idea of being two-faced, and all those problems come again. Also, those with abrasive and harsh personalities are not exactly popular, and thus you wouldn't want those people to exactly "be themselves." What to do what to do...

This always seems to bother me. I would want to say "being yourself" is a good idea, but we do have some troubles that we need to sort out first before we would think of advising it. Well, even though this sounds kinda stupid, maybe you just need to establish a personality, or simply change something to become "yourself." Like, let's say that you are one that does have an abrasive personality by nature or are very two-faced. Maybe the best way to be yourself is to change your personality by being nice or not two-faced. Yet, if we do change this, can one say that they are truly being themselves? I think it would depend on the level of change/how one deals with it before we could answer the question. Thus, it seems quite subjective, so to speak... Oh well, food for thought... It's just interesting how we use some phrases without really thinking about what they mean sometimes... Anyways, that's enough for now. Maybe if I think about anything better I'll put that down in a future post, but for now farewell...