IDENTITY : HOW OTHERS SEE US AND HOW WE SEE OURSELVES

First Holy Communion - Front Row Second on Left 1947

In some ways, I suppose we are most ourselves in the eyes of others when we are little children.We are just little  - whoever. It is that simple. But within our own being we are then not yet fully ourselves, because we are not free to say whatever we wish , and in fact we do not yet have ideas or opinions on many, even most subjects. Later as teenagers we have strongly felt opinions or prejudices , sometimes ill-informed, but not at all times freely expressed. Our identity is gradually unfolding to the world like a  flower.Our sense of our own identity is powerful at this time. Others sénse of our identity will then depend on how successfully or completely we have negotiated the shoals of puberty. Most of our peers , being in just the same stage of confusion as we are at some stages, will think we are great or a drag. Older folk will see the forming personality more readily and begin to react accordingly, but often they will react to the projected personality which at this stage may be somewhat at odds with the authentic personality now formed.

                                                      1958 On ferry leaving Circular Quay

As we reach the stage of being a young man or woman,our identity just completed, begins to be moulded by strong external influences,our equally mature peers, our studies, our vocation and or, employment.This effect works on how we see ourselves and how we are seen by others.To take exceptional cases, the young Sailor sees himself as just that and is likewise perceived as a sailor. In the employment sphere  the young man or woman can come to identify themselves with the corporation which employs them. The Sailor is a NAVY man and affects to have no time for Soldiers/ the Army or Airmen/the Air Force. The Commonwealth Banker will affect to look down on The Westpac man.Others will come to identify the individual with that employment. "Here comes the NAVY!"as he enters a social gathering. Or, "What has the Commonwealth Bank got to say for himself??"This phenomenon has even been publicly acknowledged in St.George Bank's TV Commercials, distinguishing its man as socially acceptable whereas a mere "banker"was not.

THE FRENCH BANKER 1986

More important than all of these for a man is his identity as a husband, father and grandfather, this is an enduring underpinning of the superstructure.And it is itself ideally resting on the foundation of his relationship with God.

Magnetic Island with my beautiful family - that is me behind the camera -the Paterfamilias.1986

So, where am I going with this?

Well, in my time I have been:
the Catholic Schoolboy
the Steam Locomotive Buff
the aspiring Seminarian
the Seminarian
the ex-Seminarian
the young Commonwealth Public Servant
the Solicitor for Railways young man
Mr Commonwealth Bank
the Naval Reservist
the Man from United Dominions
The Man from the Banque Nationale de Paris
The Man from the Archdiocese of Brisbane
The Man from Ignatius Press
The Publisher of Foundation
The Queenslander
and always, through it all The Catholic

But all the employment identities are long since gone,and the question arises
then, what is my identity now?

                                                                       FLORENCE, 2009

 At 71 years I am still The Catholic, The Husband, Father, Grandfather, the Publisher of FOUNDATION .the Queenslander at heart, the Blogger of "VEXILLA REGIS"http://vexilla-regis.blogspot.com/, of" EDWARD BECKMANN "  http://edwardbeckmann.blogspot.com/                                                                                  of  "CONRAD BECKMANN "http://conradbeckmann.blogspot.com/ of "CARL DOPMEYER "http://carldopmeyer.blogspot.com/ and most recently of " PORTA FIDEI - DOOR OF FAITH "http://portafidei.blogspot.com/ , not to mention this Blog.

I once heard a mature man address another in the middle of a formal meeting saying : "Stripped to the core M...... I am a PATRIOT"to the considerable embarrassment of everyone else in the room. Not that we didn't all consider ourselves PATRIOTS, but in Australia we don't go about saying such things to colleagues - it seems absurdly pretentious. Happily, though there were suppressed smirks ,no-one actually laughed .But it was a close-run thing. Due allowance was made for the fact that he was in the Advertising business. But, at the heart of it , it was a pretty sad statement : stripped to the core of our being, patriotism though admirable in every way, comes nowhere near the fundamental importance of our relationship with God. 

So, when it all falls away, "stripped to the core"I am a Catholic.

 I have been through all my life, and with God's Grace I shall be, through all my life and beyond. That is what Jesus Christ wanted for everyone.All else that really matters in my life is my wife , children and grandchildren all my family and friends and yes,I am also a Patriot.

TONY DIXON