The person you've always wanted to be...
I can't quite decide whether to put this here or in Fluffy...oh well, here it is.
This is a bit of an exercise in character study.
As we wander through life, we catch glimpses of parts of others that we wish we too embodied...or else, were better at expressing. On occasions, we may even come across someone who we wish we could be more like in general. From these pieces and/or wholes, we assemble an ideal...or a temporary fantasy or many temporary fantasies of how we would like to express ourselves and how we would like others to see us.
Everything from physical attributes to emotional composition to intellectual abilities to indescribable qualities is fair game here. No one will pick on you for switching genders...it's the internet, after all. Try to write the response as a character vignette (as opposed to saying something that lacks definition like: I would enjoy being a vixen with straight black hair and a wicked sense of play)...or what have you.
Multiple characters are encouraged as are renderings of the shadow (i.e. the person you would NEVER want to be...or the person who is your "opposite"...albeit not objectionable to you). If you recount a shadow or "opposite", please clarify that you're deviating from the original suggestion in this manner.
Re: I am the person I've always wanted to be
But never fear Nous. I'll play. I promise this thread won't languish for long. Since you posted this thread, I'm tempted to write a response every time I come here, which is several times a day. I just haven't worked up the courage or strength to do it. It's impossible to write a response to a question like that without being honest, and I'm not ready for that yet!
But I will be soon!
fluttersby
. . . her arms are wicked and her legs are long . . .
DeShaz Registered User
Posts: 29
(1/24/03 1:11 am) Reply
waste
To dream of the person you would wish to be is to waste the person you are. ~unknown
I am the sum of my experiences. Whenever I have played the game of what would I change...I have find I would have to lose something good to delete something bad. Why wish to be something other than you are? To improve? Maybe...but that's the me that doesn't exist yet. And I don't know what path is the one to take me there.
Re: The person you've always wanted to be...
From the book "Illusions," by Richard Bach...
...Once there lived a villiage along the bottom of a great crystal river.
The current of the river swept silently over them all - young and old, rich and poor, good and evil, the current going its own way, knowing its own crystal self.
Each creature in its own manner clung tightly to the twigs and rocks of the river bottom, for clinging was their way of life, and resisting the current what each had learned from birth.
But one creature said at last, 'I am tired of clinging. Though I cannot see it with my eyes, I trust that the current knows where it is going. I shall let go and let it take me where it will. Clinging, I shall die of boredom.'
The other creatures laughed and said, 'Fool! Let go, and that current that you worship will throw you tumbled and smashed across the rocks, and you will die quicker than boredom!'
But the one heeded them not, and taking a breath did let go, and at once was tumbled and smashed by the current across the rocks.
Yet in time, as the creature refused to cling again, the current lifted him free from the bottom, and he was bruised and hurt no more.
And the creatures downstream, to whom he was a stranger, cried, 'See a miracle! A creature like ourselves, yet he flies!...
And the one carried in the current said...'The river delights to lift us free, if only we dare let go. Our true work is this voyage, this adventure.'
---
The only character trait I covet is to "let go"...to resist the current no more. Young or old, male or female, pretty or ugly, rich or poor. Unimportant. It is a trait I am not sure I have ever seen in its purest form...but I HAVE seen it here.
Hrmmm...
I think ye ladies and gentlemen took this a bit on the serious side. Perhaps the thread title was badly chosen...and this most likely should have been placed in Fluffy.
The general idea was one of "favorable empathy". For example, the person I have always wanted to be is a rather complex, varied and extremely large amount of people. I'm happy being me but I am distinctly displeased that the boarders of my skin comprise my only ability to experience life as a human. I want at least a day or so in the shoes of as many walks of life, personality types, races, classes, creeds, sexual and gender orientations and nationalities as I can possibly get my mind around.
Some truly basic examples:
-> It would be nice to have a nocturnal emission just once before I leave the planet...the fact that I never will leaves me feeling as if I'm experiencing a life lived without some basic bodily function (like hiccups).
-> I would like to know what it would be like to be very overweight - to have the experience of taking up or "claiming" space just by the nature of the size of my body.
-> I have absolutely no desire to have money but I would enjoy a short term experience of living in the shoes of someone who does.
-> I don't think I was ever able to step on the NYC subway without finding at least one fellow passenger who I wanted to switch bodies with for the duration of the trip...just to see what was in there.
etc.
Then again, perhaps the idea isn't interesting...
Edited by: NousPoetikos at: 1/24/03 11:55:08 pm
dharma explorer
Posts: 391
(1/26/03 8:38 pm) Reply
.Nous - I've given this some thought since your post of two days ago.
Here goes:
I'd like to know what it is like to be pregnant. To feel another life inside me...taking nourishment from me. I'd like to breastfeed an infant.
To trust someone completely. I don't recall ever trusting anyone fully...not even as a child.
I want to be able to understand what pupperoni is thinking. After all, he seems to know what I'm thinking.
It would be great to have the courage to put myself first more often.
I'd like to take the stage at a seedy blues bar, and get a standing ovation after three hours of singing and playing.
---------- The next best thing to playing and winning....is playing and losing
DeShaz Registered User
Posts: 31
(1/27/03 3:58 am) Reply
Re: .manniac you inspire me. I've been thinking about this a couple days...but haven't been able to figure out how to put it into words. I could take your list as my own...but I won't.
Though, I'm going to have to say I'd like to experience pregnancy and childbirth. I feel like I've missed something important by not having the experience, though I really don't want children.
Damn your eyes...I feel like I'm just copying. It's been a dream for a long time to sing in an old nightclub....something like Etta James...deep and throaty.
To fly. Okay, I'd settle for parachuting. To feel the wind beneath me and come as close to flying as possible. Actually, let me expand - I'd like to be someone that is really athletically talented. To fly down a mountain on skis...to fly across the water. To run through the red rocks of New Mexico.
To be an artist. I have an artistic eye...I just can't create what I see.
To be more spontaneous and less responsible. To just pack up what I need and travel the world. I used to have a friend who worked just long enough to save some money and then traveled the world (normally backpacking) until she ran out of money. I've never been brave enough to let go like that.
To be beautiful. To know what it's like for someone to admire me just on the basis of looks. It seems shallow in some ways...but I've always felt I had to prove myself in some way because I'm not attractive.
enough...
Blue Registered User
Posts: 15
(1/28/03 3:08 pm) Reply
.
It isn't a character trait I'd like to change, add or delete. It's more a question of duality.
I'd like to take some of the paths that I haven't. I don't want to do it over, but I'd like to know where those roads go.
Irrespective of my happy marriage, there is another woman with whom I could have lived happily ever after. She still haunts my dreams to this day, and I don't dare contact her for fear of what might become. I'd like to live that life with her too. I feel somewhat cheated sometimes.
On a lighter note, I'd like to experience sex from a woman's perspective, and enjoy multiple orgasms.
One word for you, Blue: kegel.
Happy honeymoon.
Kegels kick in after a few weeks of regular "exercise".
Edited by: NousPoetikos at: 1/28/03 11:16:57 pm
Blue Registered User
Posts: 16
(1/28/03 11:54 pm) Reply
Re: The person you've always wanted to be...
I am not the least bit suprised you know this.
Capabilities notwithstanding, I have serious doubts that mine would be anything like yours.
submedia Registered User
Posts: 1
(3/28/03 2:14 am) Reply
Re: The person you've always wanted to be...
Quote:
I want at least a day or so in the shoes of as many walks of life, personality types, races, classes, creeds, sexual and gender orientations and nationalities as I can possibly get my mind around.
Nous - I completely agree with you on this. Every once in a while you hear the silly question: "If you could have one superpower what would it be?" Most people say something like flight, ESP, or invisibility. But I have always wanted to be able to live the lives of others for just a short time. I suppose this superpower could be thought of has some form of "possession".
What would it be like to live the life of a stranger for a week? Just imagine walking about in the skin of another person completely different from yourself. I debate between wanting to live as someone very different from myself or someone very similar who is still not quite me. Would it be better to explore the great differences between yourself and others or to delve into the subtleties?
Though as I consider the questions and possiblitities that spring to mind I can't help but think of one thing. Each of us as we are right now has the option to take on as many roles in life as we dare. By trying on different masks we can learn more about ourselves and the world. Fantasizing about being someone else is like watching Reality Television. Why watch a fake depiction of someone else's life when you could be living your own?
Re: The person you've always wanted to be...
Submedia wrote:
Fantasizing about being someone else is like watching Reality Television. Why watch a fake depiction of someone else's life when you could be living your own?
I think its like going to the theatre or to the movies. You know's it just a bunch of special effects and rehearsals and whatnot, but the whole point is to 'suspend' your reality and try to live the reaity of another. That is why I love it.
I'm pretty happy with the way I am, but I agree I could use some fine tuning here and there. I'd like to be more responsible and less carefree. I am too trusting, which is a good thing, but I've never been in a tight situation so I don't know if I'll be able to handle it. I usually forget the keys or leave the house without any money on me. I've been had by many a con-artist/beggars and that, at least, has thickened my skin so I don't give them the time of day anymore.
On a more fantastical note, I would love to experience being a woman in various histories and geographies. A court poettesse in Andalusia, a rebellious/elegant all hats and feathers gal from the Jazz age of the Great Gatsby, a priestess and fellow philosopher of ancient Greece, a Medici patron of the arts in Florence, a merchants daughter in Ottoman Damascus peeking from her window to catch a glimpse of her suitor, a beautician in a Morroccan bath, a sultry tango dancer in Argentina....
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...give me wings.........
Crobster Registered User
Posts: 3
(8/5/05 10:12 am) Reply
Re: The person you've always wanted to be...
Ah, Blisslessy I do hope you are still out here somehwere and will come back to play.
Bumping this old topic, I used to yearn to be less introspective and shy but have learned to accept that these traits have their advantages. I think that this is not uncommon so have concluded that ultimately we do actually become the people we truely want to be.
Edited by: Crobster at: 8/5/05 10:26 am
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