What are you?

What I am?

I always feel awkward when I'm asked that question. You are expected to respond with what you do for a living, i.e. what you do to bring dollars through the door.

Well, that doesn't sit well with me. That isn't how I define myself. My day job is merely incidental to who or what I am. I place more emphasis on making a life than on making a living.

And yet, I wouldn't feel comfortable coming out with that answer. To entrust a stranger or even an acquaintance . . . To divulge what I deem to be important in my life and what makes me what I am. Well, that isn't for casual conversation. So when asked, I tend to 'um' and 'er'. Here, though, in this blog, it's a different story . . .

Go on, twist my arm behind my back.

I guess the thread that runs unbroken through my life is that of thinking. I'm a thinker, I suppose, and have been since I discovered myself self-aware. Not the intellectual type of thought, though. Nothing to do with academics. I don't put a priority on speed or IQ. Instead, I think slowly in finely munching circles.

Very well, then. Put me down as a Philosopher if I am to have a label. The field where I'm active is that of Applied Philosophy.

Okay, that'll do. That's as good as you're gonna get, and as good as I'm going to be able to put it.