This morning I saw a quiz on Facebook that asked, “Which 4 friends are you a combination of?”  These types of quizzes are very popular right now.  Why?  Most of us have no idea who we are.  When I was little, I often heard a mocking tone as people talked about others running off to “find themselves.”  I watch some of those same voices as they publish quiz results on Facebook.  What mythical creature are you?  How old is your soul?  How many gnomes live in your earlobes?

This morning, I decided to find myself with the help of quizzes from NameTests.com.  Not only do these quizzes tell me I’m a mess but now they have me questioning the very nature of reality!  What do you mean I shouldn’t take it seriously?  It’s an Internet Quiz for heaven’s sake.  It’s ON THE INTERNET, we all know that means it must be true!

Split Personalities

The first thing I discovered about myself is that I may need to buy a skirt.  Oh, wait . . . I already have one, sort of.  I do get to keep the facial hair though, my youngest son is in the mix.

If we apply a little math to my results, we also learn something unique about my wife, Shanna, but I have no idea what it might mean.

shanna + carman = ramdas
monica + carman + connie + george = ramdas

both equations equal ramdas, therefore
 

shanna + carman = monica + carman + connie + george

carman is the same in both equations, so we can remove her
 

shanna = monica + connie + george

We’ll just avoid any talk of Sophocles at this point, thank you.

Altered Reality

I also learned why my daughter loves her red hair!  Oh, wait . . . this means she’s just an alter ego version of me; so, I need red hair or something like that.  Not to worry though, college professor and friendly alter ego, Monica, will help me sort it all out.

Warm Fuzzies

Of course I like this one!  It’s my beloved Shanna and my mom, it makes me all kinds of warm and fuzzy.  Of course, that could also be the wool shirt I’m wearing.  It’s very hard to tell where warm fuzzies come from.

The Outsider?

Oh look, it’s Monica again!  Earlier, I learned that she’s part of me and my friendly alter ego.  Now she’s my.  evil.  twin . . . wait, if my evil twin is also my friendly alter ego that means [does some philosophical math], that means I’m the UNfriendly ego!  I am the horror in the mirror!

Oh Sweet Mystery of Life!

I have lived many years since I first heard about people trying to find themselves and along the way I have realized what so many have tried to find.  You don’t need to go to India but you can find it there.  You don’t need to go to a temple but you can find it there.  Shall I tell you?  You wouldn’t believe me if I told you but I will tell you anyway:  That which is seeking is that which you seek.  When will you find it?  Now.  Where will you find it?  Here.  How will you know you have found it?  When you see inaction in action and action in inaction.  Then you will know that the knower of the field and the field are not two, they are One.

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare.  All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations.  It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.  There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal.  Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat.  But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

Jai Bhagwan