Self Knowledge

Socrates said “Know thyself.” Shakespeare said, “To thine own self be true.” Can we really be true to someone we hardly know? Can we ever really know ourselves? I don’t think it’s a matter of knowing who we are so much as it is a matter of knowing who we are not. The personality is too complex to ever know everything about us but if you ask anyone, they can tell you who they are not.
The capacity to learn about ourselves is limitless, although we can never attain all that knowledge. Every time I feel I have learned everything I can, the hand of Fate punches me and wakes me up. We are ever changing, constantly in motion and therefor impossible to pin down under one certain definition. All that we can be sure of is what we are not. The subject of religious beliefs is a prime example of this. I, for one, have no specified religion; I am not Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, or Hindu. I believe in some sort of power controlling this universe; not necessarily “God” yet I am not an atheist. I don’t know what I am but I know what I am not.
In social circles I don’t fit into one category or stereotype; I don’t know where I would be placed but I know where I would not—I’m not a punk, a gothic queen, a preppie, a snob, a jock or a nerd. I don’t need a label to know who I am or need defining terms for all the bits of my personality—all I need to know is who I am not.
There are a great many people available and willing to tell you who they think you are or should be and many people are all too eager to be given these so called answers. There are so many people walking around regurgitating beliefs they have been told to believe and never stop to question if they really agree. I have many friends who were raised Catholic, having had a certain dogma their whole lives, who are now questioning their beliefs. They did not freely choose their religion; it was forced upon them. They don’t know what they believe any more but they do know that they don’t agree with Catholicism.
There is pressure from the world around us to have definite opinions on everything and an explanation for everything. It takes a wise person to suspend judgement on things they don’t have enough information available to make a sound judgement on, and this goes for knowing who we are. We don’t need labels or definitions because personalities are undefinable. We are infinite with limitless possibilities and it takes more strength to say, “I don’t know” than it does to agree to a characteristic that is not yours. Self-knowledge is a journey with out an end. We must constantly strive to know who we are not to begin to understand who we are.