Hey Dad!

by Bobby Cox

Here is the essay you requested and the facebook posts I was talking about. Just some thoughts (healthy ones though ha) If they are of particular interest to you then we can discuss them further.

Something curious has been eating at my brain lately... the concept of "Identity". I have studied it a great deal through classes and on my own time lately, and it's a fascinating subject. Many people know who they are. They have an identity. Those people so confident in themselves that they don't care who they alienate. Whether it's the loudmouth ghetto kids on the bus, hipsters at the coffee shop, snobs at the racquet club... There are all sorts of things and groups to identify with: Specific groups like I mentioned, money and material things, race, country, etc. I have always envied those people so confident in who they are because they don't seem to care what others think of them. They know who they do and do not want to associate with. I have envied them because here I am with no identity to speak of. When I was younger I played basketball and still do, but had/have no interest in becoming a "Jock". I played video games for many years, but one could not classify me as a "nerd". I lifted weights but was far from a "meathead". I worked in a warehouse for 2 years but never bought into being a blue collar laborer. I don't even Identify with being American... After studying Italian language and culture for over a year I could just as easily make my way in Italy, adopt their culture, and be as other Italians are without fearing any loss of identity. I suppose I could be called a chameleon, able to adapt to any environment, but still feeling like somewhat of an outsider because I won't ever truly identify with it. Maybe I have been like this because at my core I knew identification with these things was an illusion... That who I really am can not be classified, cannot be explained through identification, and neither can anyone else. I realize now, it's not that I don't have an identity, it's that I identify with everyone, and everything. Everything here on earth all came from Space and whether it's a human, or a piece of metal, many of the particles which make them are the same. I think many people know this too, but are so caught up in the world of form identification that they are blinded in many ways. I know I was, and still am sometimes. It's very tangible and easy to get caught up in... but I challenge myself everyday to look past the illusion. I challenge my mind, telling it that it doesn't have to identify with anything in particular to feel whole - but that I am whole already. If any of this strikes a chord, then maybe it's time to challenge yourself as well. If not, that's cool too. Thanks for reading
Had an interesting conversation yesterday with my friend and co-worker Ben, (who is a very smart and knowledgeable person), about the condition of our country. I will start by saying that I am very comfortable with my life here and have all the opportunities I could ever imagine, but we couldn't help but notice how our society is feeding more and more to humans greatest dysfunction, the human condition. Government seems to be getting more and more corrupt, only focusing on votes and not on solutions. Many people at the very top will continue to be able to evade taxes and not pay their fair share because they donate so much to political causes, and the people who rely on the government to take care of them will continue to be taken care of because that ensures their vote... All the while the middle class gets hosed and continue to shrink. At the same time, many people believe the solution is to tax the hell out of the rich because they are hoarding their money while others are "suffering". Ben brought it to my attention that this is the same mentality Nazi Germany had toward the Jews because many Jews had a lot of money while the rest of the Germans were getting the shaft stuck with all of the debt from the war and insane inflation. That case is obviously more extreme, but it's all derived from the dysfunctional human condition... The rich continuing to want more and more and stay in power... and the poor being jealous of them for having it. Even if every dollar was taken from the rich, it would only be enough to finance the amount our country spends for 1 month. That's insane. Not that I'm some expert on all things political and sociological, but I think it's clear that changes have to made otherwise our system will collapse. I feel like it's going to take something extreme that will throw everyone in the same boat (like WWII did) to initiate a healing process, but even then, internally people will still be dysfunctional and history is bound to repeat itself. There needs to be a change in consciousness, a disassociation with the human condition as the dominant driving force; an internal change to spark an appropriate external one.