Shadows

So in response to Tara's previous post about your shadow, your other self, or perhaps your true self, whatever you want to call it, I've decided to post some random ideas I had about it.  Not specifically about my own personal shadow, much too personal for the wide world of the internet, but more about the implications.

If your shadow is a part of you that is never or hardly seen by the "public", is that an indication of the true you?  Does your shadow dictate what kind of person you are deep down? Or is it just one side?

As someone who has been trying to find the "not shadow" it presents a very odd question.  Is your public face, really who you are? Everyone wears a facade, a mask of some sort to hide their true nature.  A pleasant smile, a compliment, politeness, but behind that could be lurking the most ill-conceived malicious intent.  But not to disparage the entire world think of this, someone who is rather scary, brash, mean, violent, is actually a rather happy, nurturing, caring person who suffers from being unable to express themselves well.

Then, just to make it even more complicated, we have the issue of people being multi-faceted, rather than having only two sides.  What are those other sides?  The ones that come raging up, or simmer quietly below the face you put on for the world every day.  Or like Tara, who express the different sides via writing and characters.  How many people can you make for each "shadow" of yourself?  How are they different and how are they the same.   Which stand more prominently in your behavior, and which shrink back?

The more I think about it the more I wonder.

If you are a terrible person, who's shadow/true self is actually a nice person, but it's not who you currently are, then what do you do?  What do you do knowing that in actuality people do not like who you are now, but there exists within you someone they do like better.  Does the shadow become a source of jealousy?  Can you hate your shadow?  Can you hate yourself?

And then what if your shadow is a terrible person?  Someone that you constantly fear will come storming through all barriers that you put up, to wreak havoc on the people around you, the ones you love and care for?  And it's someone you can't physically leave behind or run away from.  Someone who's always there waiting, watching, ready to break past any locked doors you put them behind.

So...who are you really?

Are you the sum of your parts? Are you just one part of the whole?
Is who you are now, really you?

Or is it someone else?

Are you the shadow?  Or the light?

Interesting questions to ponder.  Questions I've pondered myself, with little to no answers.  Self-identity is a rather big issue for those who, like myself, live in a place where food, shelter, warmth, and security is relatively stable.  Seeing as how my biggest issue is psychological it means that I am not as concerned where my next meal will come from.  I know it will come from the magical box called the refrigerator, rather than hunt/gather it myself.  And seeing as whoever is reading this is on a computer, I think you may also eat from the magical box of the refrigerator.

So to wind down from this (I hope) thought provoking session, I'd like to discuss actual shadows.  And what better way to do that than by talking about shadow puppets.  Oh puppets...

But I'm not talking about your standard sleep over shadow puppets, oh no.  I'm talking about the theater.  Have you seen the puppets they have? It's ridiculous!  Here's a few pics.  These are Indonesian shadow puppet theater stuff.  Check out the wiki article to learn more.