Welcome to the round up. This is the paragraph that explains where we have been so far and transitions to where we are going. I think it is going well so far, but there is some room for improvement, and most dangerously, there is enough that still needs to be done that it might go horribly wrong. The biggest problem for me is not using the word so as an opener.
In all seriousness, we have learned that identity is not a choice, and we also learned that it takes a whole bunch of new agey words and concepts to define one's identity. For those who read yesterday's deliniation of the facets (i Had to use the word facets in a sentence because someone was using the word today non stop, but mispronouncing it. There are many faucets to this case. In order to understand what is going on we need to examine each faucet. It drove me up the wall so much that I needed to write a Wheatonesque parenthetical after actually using the right word in a sentence) to ....does anyone actually remember what I was saying before the parenthetical breakdown? Me either. Ok, yesterday we used different categories to define our own identities.
Some astute people may have noticed that I left something important out. Beliefs. I touched briefly on world view, but I specifically wanted to give this aspect of identity it's own top billing.
I did this because, it is my belief that beliefs are a strong force that implore people to behave in a certain way.
Beliefs are some of the strongest factors in our behaviour because they define our world view and speak to our desire for perfection of the future self.
Most of us are stuck in what is called present bias. We think more about the person we are right now, and less about the person of the future. Wer tend to pamper ourselves right away, rather than plan to pamper our future self. Mostly we do this because we like to think of our future self as being perfect. We think this person is going to eat better, live better, treat people better.
Think of it this way, you purchase a steak and asparagus. That night you are trying to decide what to have for dinner. You can only have one or the other. Someone with present bias (which is most of the honest people in the world. The rest will lie in exactly 12 seconds) will eat the steak and say to themself, on Monday, I am going to eat my vegetables and be happy about it. You see, the real you is in love with the steak and so you pamper yourself with it, telling yourself that the you of tomorrow is a better preson and will do the right thing.
Beliefs are much like us trying to work towards that better us. We select a series of thoughts and ideas that allow us to comfort the present self with thoughts of a stronger future self and future world.
I have no interest in going in to a discussion of spirituality at this point. The truth of religion is not what we are discussing here, merely the psychology why we choose religion and belief structures.
We use these beliefs in a ritualistic fashion. Ritual is a strong factor in ourlives because it brings on strong emotional memory. It is sort of the reverse of insanity, which is to say, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting the same result.
Our past experiences are tied to emotion, some good and some bad. We seek out with great passion and fervour the good and avoid the bad like the plague (unless we are maladaptive, in which case we seek out the bad to reinforce our skewed mental image of the world).
It saddens me to realise, I have no ritual. I have no experiences which I seek to relive.
Because it is December, I think about all my Christmas rituals. None of which I have kept or find specific interest in.
I used to desire the advent calendar. When I was a kid, I would do the advent thing every year. Each morning i would run to get my little piece of choclate. BTW, have you ever noticed that the low quality chocolate in those things tastes the same no matter where you are in the world? Creepy. Anyway, when I tried to recapture that as an adult, it just felt flat. Oh, for the geeky, I just learned there is an app for that. No kidding, you can download an advent calander app for you iWhatever, and every day you get a fun little winter/christmas themed little animation. There really is an app for everything.
I used to watch the Grinch every year, but that too has never been the same since living in Ottawa. It just now reminds me of bad feelings.
I seem to have gotten off the track of beliefs, but I think we all understand how these beliefs dictate our desired actions and feelings. Your beliefs unfortunitely hit the breakwater of your actions and emotions. This cognitive dissonance is what allows Christians to beat their wives, Muslims to kill people, Buhdists to do anything, and Athiests to be kind (just kidding atheists, don't hate me because I am sarcastic).
The point is, when we have beliefs, no matter what they are, we are forced to try and behave like our beliefs dictate. The trouble of course present bias. It allows us to break our belief structure b ecause on Monday we will be more Like Sidartha/Jesus?Satan?the great pumpkin.
Ritual is the form many of these beliefs take because we strive to reexperience anything and everything that once made us feel good. Whatever made us feel loved, cared for, whole, other adjective.
For those reasons, belief and ritual are a huge factor in our identity. We place a lot of value on how we hope the future will be, and without belief and ritual to lean on and look forward to respectively, we become lost in our own actions only. Most of which would make us feel crappy if we didn't know for a fact that on Monday the diet starts.
P.S., this post is gonna seem a bit disjointed because I removed a huge chunk, and that cripled the flow in the middle, but it was necessary, and I didn't want to not do this piece in its entirely.
