Stripped and Painted

We are a collection of our experiences, our history, a summation of what we've learned from books, interactions with the world, and with other human beings.

In the process of finding ourselves, that journey which all human beings go on at some point, as we discover and strip away our fears of what everyone, the world has told us about ourselves, what is left?

What if I choose to wipe away everything, good or bad, that anyone has told me? Take away their observations, compliments and insults. Strip it all away, so that I may form my own opinion?

What if I had been praised wrongly? That maybe what I"m not good at was only encouraged by praise so that I wouldn't feel bad?

"You are a brave soul." What if I told that to my child at three years old, then again at four, and five? What if he or she is not? How would that change him or her?

That's what I mean by all the praise you've received since birth. What were the motivations behind them? And were they completely true? Or were they irrevocably biased to begin with, coming from a parent or teacher who was from from expert on particular matters?

Strip it all away, and what do you have left? Is it a pure, unvarnished, untouched soul? A floating spirit or entity (without recourse), universal in nature, like all other souls, or unique? Would we then be one with all or completely isolated?

I wonder this while sitting on a subway, wondering as my soul is propelled forward, within the body, to a physical location.

I have changed my job, my career and interests many times. And these decisions are based on my learnings, my experiences.

What would I then do if I was to strip it all away? Where would I go? How would I live?

Perhaps that is the essence of daily life. Stripping and adding, like a coat of paint. Two coats. No wait, it's time to clean house. Back to the wood and dry wall. Raw.

What would you be, raw? I know who I am more than ever, but this present is different than that moment I've just left behind.

This is me now, stripped and painted, stripped and painted.

It will always be...