Inspired by the words of Amartya Sen in his book Identity and Violence: The Illusion of Destiny, he described himself as an Asian, an Indian citizen, a Bengali with Bangladeshi ancestry, an American or British resident, an economist, a dabbler in philosophy, an author, a Sanskritist, a strong believer in secularism and democracy, a man, a feminist, a heterosexual, a defender of gay and lesbian rights, a Hindu with a nonreligious lifestyle, a non-Brahmin, and a nonbeliever in an afterlife. Sen (73) is a Nobel Prize winner in economics. He is a global man and his works has inspired many people in this world.
There are million people who get trapped in a small corner of their potential life, and live their life without doing something really meaningful even for their personal life. How far can we go with our life? What is the limit? Where is the border line?
When I reach 60 or 70, what would be the perfect labels to describe me? At this point of time, I only have few labels that I know for sure will remain the same until I die: an Asian, an Indonesian citizen, an Indonesian with Batak ancestry, a Jesus follower, a Christian, a man, a heterosexual.
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7 comments:
I think it is very important to explore and find our way into life, the meaning of our presence on this earth, so I can only agree with your words.
At the same time, I feel like the more I explore, the more one does, the more one should go nearest to free himself of any label. Just to be.
Learning respect for oneself, for others, for the earth, for the life of which we are only a tiny part, should teach us how far and deep we can go, and how important is to be.
This is my idea.
My best greetings
This is really a hard to answer questions for everyone of us. Most of us work from morning till night. 70% of their time is working! 10% for sleeping.. 20% for personal life ? what we can do with 20% of times ? Less right ?
"When I reach 60 or 70, what would be the perfect labels to describe me?"
I hope you'll be a wise guy and rich of happiness
@ raqqash: Interesting point of view.
Learn to tolerate and respect other people, so we can get along with others. Like Bono said "You don't have to be harmonious on everything to get along with someone"
@ Keeyit: It is a difficult question as we do not have control of our future life. But effort does count. If we put in a great effort, it will probably be reflected in the value of our life.
@ ag. syam: Thanks. I wish you the best too.
'an Asian, an Indonesian citizen, an Indonesian with Batak ancestry, a Jesus follower, a Christian, a man, a heterosexual.'
Whoa...That is alot of 'details' for such a simple question.
It depends on how we view our life. If I have to describe myself, I would say that am Asian, a mother of two beautiful daughters, have travel to most of every city in Indonesia, be a stringer journalist when in college, strong believer in past life, a catholic.
My label when I reach 60, I believe that the list will be long enough.
How we label ourselves, is depends on how we see our life, on how we gratefull we are to every path God has given to us ..:-)
Why we should labeling ourself? I think, we can live our life without any particular label.
Label is just discrimination's of ourself.
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