I Am

Telling ourselves who we are and what we want may feel redundant, but the high waves of social convergence sometimes buffet the very traits we’re most fond of.

Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence:

He perceived with a flash of chilling insight that in future many problems would be thus negatively solved for him; but as he paid the hansom and followed his wife’s long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage.  "After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,“ he reflected; but the worst of it was that May’s pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep. 

I am self-confident yet quiet.
I know what I don’t know.
I am a creative generalist.
I value independence of mind, often above convention, sometimes above authority.
I am imaginative yet reliable.
I value people regardless of rank or title.
I like to do what I know.
I am private and can appear impassive.
I aim to provide for my family, lead a good life, and leave this a better world than the one I entered.
I enjoy watching few sports, enjoy playing fewer still.
Ice hockey, Tim Hortons or mountains do little for me.
I would rather spend an hour debating economic systems than win the Stanley Cup.
I’d like to become a Canadian.
[living document]