Willow Tree

Who Are You?

I have to admit that I have a great time taking those silly little tests; the one's that tell you what kind of food you are or whatever. I love seeing how close to me, or what I think of me, they come.

I suppose many others enjoy these tests as well as the tests are quite popular.

But sometimes as I am taking the tests I wonder; this is how I may see myself; is this how others see me?

I feel pudgy. I know many people see me as thin. I don't know whose vision is correct, but I know the dichotomy is there. I wonder in what ways my view of self differs from the view of other people.

Of course no two people ever view anything the same way; we don't even see color exactly the same (as born out by a friend who actually saw a different color value from each eye--she still saw green as green from both eyes but the differed in tone.) Every person has a different response to the same stimuli; probably the difference is much greater with a human being where there is a constant interplay of reactions. I respond to a person not only on the basis of how they act in my presence, but on my historical social interactions with others.
And it is the same for everyone. Someone reminds us of someone else and a behavior that another would dismiss or take no notice of becomes significant, for the good or bad. And no one person is the same in every environment.

But still, there is a core personality that should stay basically the same, to everyone, possibly but to ourselves. I suppose when the dichotomy is too great we are talking about psychiatric and sociopathic disorders.

But in general, whose is the truer valuation of a person; the person that looks in the mirror or the person that is seen by others?

Posted by Rachel Ann at October 12, 2004 05:55 AM