During the last few months we’ve had someone use our bank card details on more than one occasion. Our bank were quick to act, cards were blocked and cut up. We got the money back but it was inconvenient having to be without the cards for a few days until new ones arrived. All the same, they were attempts to steal our identity.
Among the fifty to sixty or so junk emails I receive each week there are always a number offering to promote my books. I know many authors receive such approaches. Most come from abroad it seems – book clubs, radio stations, marketeers. Some impersonating the identity of others. Occasionally, there are ones who appear to have at least read the blurb. And then there are the ones who write about books I’ve not even written!
One a case of taking identity, the other of mistaking identity, perhaps.
Over the years, I’ve written quite a bit about identity. Reflecting on understanding (or not understanding) the person we are. What makes us that person: the contributing factors, attitudes and influences. Those elements we regret and dislike or admire and love, the difficulties and the joys they bring. For some, the very use of words such as admire, love and joy in relation to one’s identity are perhaps overwhelmed by those associated with regret, dislike and difficulty.
Our understanding of identity might also be influenced by life events such as ill health, work, retirement, loss or change. We might find ourselves presenting a different identity to different people according to what they expect – or what we perceive them to expect perhaps. We might be striving to be the person ‘we used to be’ or find ourselves becoming someone we don’t want to be. Such things can also lead us to feel something of our identity has been taken away.
On the other hand, as the years have gone by, we might feel our sense of identity has changed for the better. We learn who we are in God as well as who we are in ourself.
Although sometimes mistaken as being in the Bible, Shakespeare’s line ‘To thine own self be true’ is a useful maxim when considering who we are and how to counter that which makes us feel mistaken about ourselves at times.
Or, more wittily, Oscar Wilde’s words: ‘Be yourself because everyone else is taken.’
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Details of my books can be found at richardfrostauthor.com.