Some things never change—the question “Who am I?” for example. That search for self is a universal, God-created experience. One thing that has changed in the last generation or two, though, is where people are looking for the answer. For many it’s not so much a search to find values and a purpose to base their lives on as a search for an identity, an image, with a heavy emphasis on individuality.
Never has there been so much importance put on expressing individuality as in today’s commerce- and media-driven world. I did a quick search on the Internet and found hundreds of thousands of sites telling me how I could express my individuality—and most of them were selling something. There were the obvious ways (choice of clothes, hairstyle, music, diet, or car) and the less conventional (tattoos and body-piercings). These days, anything marketable is fair game. Advertisements pitch items as diverse as custom cellphone tones, artisan cremation urns, and multicolored hair extensions—all as means of expressing individuality. What consumers don’t seem to realize is that, in their quest for individuality, they end up as models of conformity—walking advertisements that promote other people’s ideas, tastes, creativity, and enterprise.
What was once a teenage rite of passage now follows us from cradle to grave—literally! A gift card company says, “You want your birth announcement to express your individuality in a special way.” A funeral home says, “Prearrangement means you can express your individuality in a funeral service.”
But stop and think. Are those surface things what make up the real you? Or is it the inner you, your spirit and the values motivating you and guiding your actions that determine the real you? What do you want to be known and remembered for—the image you project, or the positive influence you have on others? Who are you?