LEARNING OUR IDENTITY

          Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) was an English comic actor and filmmaker who became one of the most famous and recognizable people in the world during the era of the silent film. Born into hardship and poverty, Charlie began working at a young age to help support his mother, performing variety shows in English music halls at a young age, then eventually graduated to acting in theaters, where he gradually developed a theatrical persona known as "The Little Tramp" who wore the signature mustache, ill-fitting suit and black derby hat that Charlie came to be identified with for the rest of his life.

FALSE IDENTITY
            Perhaps because he had to overcome so much adversity in order to succeed, he felt a strong need to control all aspects of his work. He created his own film company, United Artists, to distribute his movies, which he wrote, directed, produced, edited and composed the music for, casting himself as the lead actor. His silent films developed a large populist following throughout the world, in part because they weren't limited by language, but mostly because they featured the
Little Tramp's struggles against rich people, bureaucracy, hypocrisy and bad luck. Employing his unique blend of hilarious slapstick and deep pathos played out against a background of universal political and social themes, his fictional on-screen character was clearly fleshed out by his own, hard-won personal battles.
            At the height of his fame, during the Great Depression, there were several Charlie Chaplin Look-alike Contests, where people would compete for cash prizes by growing mustaches, dressing and walking like him. One day, the story goes, Chaplin found himself at a county fair where one such contest was being held, and entered anonymously, just for the fun of it. Imagine his surprise when he came in third place!

TRUE IDENTITY
            The story may be true, or it may be apocryphal, but it serves to remind us that it's seldom easy to be ourselves, much less get recognized for who we really are. And apparently, back then, just as now, it can be mighty hard to live up to our own self image, much less the image(s) that others may have of us. All the more reason to invest whatever time, energy and experiences it requires to learn how to identify who we truly are from the inside out, rather than relying on reports from the outer world to validate us...
At least, that's the role I've chosen to play - and I'm sticking to it.

With blessings on your path of Be-coming,
          Rudi