At what point does a persona you've created become more of you than your old self is? What is the point of no return at which you can no longer distinguish persona from person? I don't know about others, but I think I've recently passed that point with my "Highland Sage" persona. About a year and a half ago I merely created it to have a sort of escape from being Dominic. But now, Dominic is the Highland Sage, and the Highland Sage is Dominic. Yet they are still both there. It's as if the character I created slowly crept into my normal life. But you know what? I'm glad. I originally created The Highland Sage as an idealistic, romantic, random, poet. And that is what I have become, though with the stability of someone in the real world. Over all, it's not too bad actually. I suppose it was my way of choosing what I found ideal, and working to become it. And I suppose it worked pretty well. With that thought in mind this is the one and only Highland Sage, reminding you to keep striving to become your best, and always remember that:
Life is good, even when it's not!
13 comments:
Or perhaps you always were the Highland Sage deep down inside, and writing the blog helped you get in touch with your sagey self.
I liked your latest blog post. I think that if you adapt to a persona, it just becomes part of who you are, not the other way around. You are always you. I don't believe people should be defined, in that sense. I think that you are Dominic, and that Dominic means you. This Highland Sage is just an aspect of who you are. It's a kind of paradox . . . like the Trinity.
Think about it: I am completely different than I was ten years ago. I look different; I think different; I act different, and yet, somehow, I am just as much Thomas now as I saw in 1998.
I think you're both right. I'm still Dominic. But maybe making "The Highland Sage" was just a way to bring out one of the hiding parts of my psyche. And yet, it is different from who I was... Time is strange, isn't it?
But then this leads to another question, at what point does your persona become another personality and become schitzophrenia?
See, and then there's those persona's that aren't what you want to become. Take Atta for instance(my nickname), to me, "she" represents the darker part of me, the rulebreaking, hot, out-of-line part of me. something i don't want to be there, but none-the-less is a part of me. Like the Pheonix in X-men, yet I have control of myself, and I'm not split.
That was a bit off subject.
Wow....... and um, the Highland Sage is kinda creeping me out, but I'm sure I'll get used to him. ;)
I agree with Thom. An assumed persona definitely has the potential to become part of your personality. But I also agree with Katie: a persona can be a pre-existing aspect of your personality which you name and codify, thus gaining a measure of objectivity not otherwise possible. I see the Highland Sage as a mixture of the two. The potential for Sageality was always there, and it's a fairly natural evolution of Dominic's personality, but it was also a conscious choice on his part to follow that aspect of his personality.
I know there are parts of my personality I try to encourage, and parts I try to avoid. It's something like a pair of personae: the tendency and the ideal. It's interesting to think about.
''No man for any considerable period can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.''
- Nathaniel Hawthorne, 'The Scarlet Letter'
''Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.''
- Oscar Wilde
"I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
''When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.''
- Anatole France
Boy, you guys should correspond. Or collaborate. You two should do a blog together!
Dom,I didn't even read this one.It was to long.
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