Hello! I’m———— Tao

“Think of me as you, only over here.” Unknown

It’s challenging introducing oneself to a group or another person. What do I say? Do I tell them I’m a writer? What kind of content do I offer? Do I offer past accomplishments? Will that impress you? Will I gain favor?

Or do I share what a hard life I’ve lead? All the tragedies, and resistance I’ve overcome? Should I say that I experienced drug addiction? Will you be compassionate? Impressed because I’m a survivor? Will I gain status? Do I tell a mixture of both?

All that seems a bit manipulative. Actually a lot manipulative. Perhaps not consciously at all, but a conditioned social manipulation to offer information about past selves’ that still creates a container of how you understand me, accept me, and places me in your world. It matters.

But who am I in the moment? The right now moments as I stand before you? I could only report on current feelings, moods, and extracted thoughts about the current situation. Who I was in the past only exists in these moments, who I might be in the future is potentiating. All I have ever done or been stands before you, can you see me? Now?

“Here I stand before you,” told without a single story. Hello, here I am in my entirety, in these moments. If you see me now, you see the result of the ups and downs, the challenges, the times I’ve been knocked down, and the times when everything flowed smoothly. It’s all here in front of you, no need to entertain, or regale, or be impressed. We all have the intense current status of Humans, in a state of Being Human.

In the best way possible, in the ways that really matter when we speak of compassion, I am you, only over here, you are me, only over there.

Bryan Wagner

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