Embracing me (the many me's)

"I think it's good to have multiple personalities," I said. Bree immediately said that she has two. "It's sort of like having the arrows in the quiver to re-purpose yourself whenever you need," Nancee added. "Yeah," I agreed. "Re-tooling ourselves so we can cope with whatever situation we're in." "I just know that I'm frigging nuts," Denise chimed in, "because my parents are driving me crazy." "Whatever," Nancee dismissed her, "lets all change up now. Just for fun!" I took this to be my exit strategy. "Where are you going?" Nancee yelled. "I'm slipping into my reclusive personality," I called walking out the door. "Perfect!" she said. "I'll slip into my stalker-self. We'll play Hide-and-Seek!" This actual real life conversation occurred on my second visit of the morning to The Breakfast Club. I had to go back to return books that we'd borrowed and found myself standing with the wait staff, to whom I am close and occasionally party. Driving home with the top down, having foiled Nancee's prowling personality, I recall a business meeting in the Longhorn Steak House off Pooler Parkway yesterday. Meeting with a Wealth Management Specialist, she was asking for help in things she wishes to accomplish. I must pause and point out the hilarity of what was happening. A very successful Wealth Management Professional is willing to pay for my advice. My career's been spent ending homelessness, helping the uninsured, teaching people with AIDS they have a life to live and other exciting endeavors. Of course I was successful at these things and "success" attracts "success" ... so there we were. "You know," she said munching on the Seven Pepper Salad, "everything about work and business is changing. Just look at all of the empty office space that's available. They're no longer necessary. It's all about connecting with people ... not having them just come to buy what you're selling. People have got to change ... I've got to change the way I go about it all." Taking a bite from Flo's Filet and washing it down with water with Lemon, I stared at her and nodded trying to look professional. "That's why I like you," she said pointing a fork and knife at me, "you keep re-tooling yourself. You're staying ahead." "Except for when I fall behind," I thought to myself. Thinking these things as I made my way home to dive into another day of work, I couldn't help but see the truths in both conversations. Everyone of us is a complicated, God-inspired, individual. We have many layers. If we're ever going to become everything God created us to be then it's up to us to embrace every single personality, nuance, gift, quirk, fault and fallacy that makes us ... US. If we're smart about it then we're forever moving from one layer to the next ... having learned what we could about a piece of ourselves then going to the next ... but never forsaking pulling out an old layer when we need it ... Learning to embrace and use every part of what makes me and what makes you. I have to go and slide into my workaholic personality disorder mode now. There is lots of work to do. After that, I plan to reclaim my adolescent school boy self and chase Sarah around the house for naked pagan sacrifice ceremonies. Then I'll become my Beach Bum self, raising a glass to the ocean and smelling the salt in the air as it sticks to my skin.