I Am What I Do.

I have been attempting to fully identify myself with my actions.

There is a modern tendency (MacIntyre and Zizek would have me believe) to claim an identity that is separate from the actions that we regularly perform.

A businessman, for example, may feel that his 'true self' lies in his loving relationship with his family, and that his cut-throat business dealings are superfluous, not to be considered a part of his true identity.

In other words, for us Moderns there is always a deeper, truer self that is not defined merely by what we do.

I, for instance, could claim that I am really a philosopher, an artist, a thinker, and that my working life is somehow secondary to this true self.

This is not the case. I am a barista. I am a slinger of doughnuts. A purveyor of baked and fried goods. A fattener and caffeinater of Seattle.

How interesting, this decoupling of identity and action.

Most problematic, I think.

Because now people can claim to be good people without acting like good people.

How many of use philosophies of compassion and love to justify prejudice and hate?

How many of us claim an identity even though we don't live it?

We are what we do.

Mind is what mind does.

'Be careful what you do', I say to myself.

'You are what you do', I tell myself.

I shrink at the implications of that conclusion.

Because I have done bad things.

I continue to do bad things.

And I cannot, and should not, attempt to preserve some image of myself that lives beyond my actions.

Because my being can only live through my actions.

My being can never live through my thoughts alone.

I am what I do.

I must therefore live my thinking.