What I have IS ME

What I have IS Me©

By Michael Casey

What I have IS Me, say some, I am ME without anything say others. So where do I stand?  It’s nice to have a bit of comfort my dad used to say, he’s gone 10years now, we weren’t rich but we weren’t poor either. We had very loving parents, so we had riches beyond compare, I hope I don’t sound like an evangelical, I slam the door in their face if any come aknocking at my door.

So what makes me ME, is it the clothes I wear, the out of fashion everything, if its 2XL then that’s all I need, though I do have a few nice clothes, though I’ll never wear the Emperor’s New Clothes.  So what makes me ME, I used to wear jeans with a shirt and tie, so I looked like Status Quo, that was my look, it wasn’t planned, I just liked ties. That was in my computer room days. So clothes are an aspect of personality, they mirror or highlight what we are. Big clothes, big personality, perhaps.  You can hide behind clothes too,  you can dress frumpily if you want to hide your curves.

 If you are a  body builder you’ll wear tight Tshirts to show off your bulges, if you are a tattoo fan then you’ll show flesh to show the tattoo, the fact that the human body is perfect  as God made it does not matter, some like to trash their own body with a tattoo. I’ll be chased down the high street now for having an opinion. If Michelangelo's David had a tattoo now that would make it so much more interesting.  So these changes to our own physical bodies make a statement, I can even change the fundamental nature of my own  body, I control me. Though lots of us don’t control ME, because we are too fat and then we look at Michelangelo's David and we wish we were like Michelangelo's David a kind of perfect US.

The female form in art is celebrated forever, but girls will have tattoos too, to prove they are just as good as boys. In fact girls are far better, so they are lowering their own worth by copying the boys. I did know a very pretty girl who had tattoos, I think she once said if she was unemployed the dole office would help to have the tattoos removed to help her get a job. As she was working she’d have to pay herself.

Hair colour makes a statement too, I don’t dye mine though some have said I should. My hair has got whiter and whiter, very silver white now, it started 20years ago. Girls change the colour of their hair to make a statement, to match a mood. Blondes have more Fun, goes back to Monroe, now the colours can be of all the colours of the rainbow. I grew up through the 70s so when I see all the bizarre and weird colours that men and women have I just think its just a repeat from ages, a generation ago, so its just not original.

Swearing in the street is commonplace now, I’m old fashioned so I think girls should not swear, they should stay as ladies. The age of swearing is lower and lower, but people think it’s impressive,  I’d just boring.

I swear on occasion, but it does not define ME, it does not trap me in a Cul de Sac.  All of the examples I’ve given show how we as people like to tinker at the edges of our  form. But what makes us different. If we were all nudists how could we tell each other apart, I’ll wait while you snigger. Personality defines us and personality is not the cut of our jib, if we were blind we’d not be hampered by the overwhelming nature of sight. Speech defines us in a big way, if we were dumb we would not be hampered by our petty like or dislike of accents. Then we have touch, shaking hands, rough or smooth hands make an impression, but what if we had no touch. If all we had was thoughts, how would we be? You could say Email is just that, just as you are reading this you are not hampered by any preconceptions of me and what I am like.

So we have taken the walls down bit by bit, till there is nothing. We have attempted to make ourselves anew by having our tattoos, our hair styles, our clothes. But in the end what makes me ME. I’ll try and explain. If you look in your own soul and accept yourself as yourself and say “ well God this is me” then you don’t need clothes and tattoos nor hair dyes or even clothes. No I’m not saying we should all be nudists. We are who we want to be, we are who we can be. A bit of music here, humming a tune there, a shared smile, making a new joke every time you are in Iceland, a nod a glance as you walk down the high street. Talking to the little old lady in the street, having a bit of compassion as you pass through this life. This makes ME and this makes YOU.

Or you can have a wall, and hide behind everything, being afraid of looking into the mirror. Clothes don’t make the man, the man makes the man. Everything else is a distraction.