“I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam”.

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Your papers, pleeze!!!

That’s the first thought that comes to mind when I think of the word - identity. The second thought that comes to mind when I think of the word identity is the many possible identities of, LGBTQRSTUVXYZ . . . and so on.

The current obsession with badges and labels is a dreary sort of cataloguing. It strikes me as useless. Is anyone’s life improved by being blazoned with precise classification? It seems to me our identity should be mostly our own damn business. The digital world demands, “Your papers, pleeze!!!” as fundamental to authorized operation. They’re right. I just wish they’d find a less annoying way to get it done other than long chains of numbers, letters, and punctuation marks.

Robots think that way, humans don’t. Although, the digital gnomes that write algorisms probably don’t see that as much of a problem.

I’m impatient with, “Your papers, pleeze!!!”

It wasn’t always that way.

Will Rogers famously said that, down where he came from there wasn’t much use for even a birth certificate; most folks just took your word for it.

That was then, this is now. Too bad.

Young people have no problem with the tedious multiplicity of secret codes required for their digital I.D. – though they are persnickety about their “preferred” pronoun. For most of my life, “He” or “She” good enough. Now, “He or She”, insist on being called “They”, “Them”, or some other oddity. I wonder what pronoun They or Them prefer for a group of people.

Strangely, the fuss about identity is conflated with certification. How can anyone be sure who you are or what you’re worth, without a certificate? College diplomas once certified actual education. Now, they certify a work permit. You may not have learned much, but faced with the employer’s demand, “Your papers, pleeze!!!” – You have papers to present.

Will Rogers might wonder why not just give the kid a chance; see what they or them might be able to do. Of course, he’d probably wouldn’t say, they or them.

I’ve never been too much worried about my identity. I never doubted who I was, or what

I am, or anyone else’s opinion about it. To quote the immortal Popeye, “I yam what I yam, and that’s all what I yam”. The current culture seems to find such an attitude increasingly intolerable.

Narcissus obsessed on his own image. The twenty-first century seems obsessed with everybody’s image. Approved identity and proper certification matter more than actual skill, character, and integrity.

If you don’t have papers to present, you might not exist.

By K. L. Shipley

Website: https://www.eclecticessays.com