The question I’ve been thinking about for over a decade
When I was in high school, John Drisko, one of my favorite teachers (who later became principal) used to ask us a very important question. It’s one I’m still trying to answer.
“Who are you, and what do you stand for?”
I still remember him standing on stage, addressing the assembly with this question during his first year as principal of our high school. Half of me thought “Hah, I’m Kelly, and I stand for coffee because I’d fall over without it”. The other half really wanted to find an answer to that question that wouldn’t disappoint him, my family, or myself.
Who am I? That’s actually the easier part of the question, because it’s one we’re used to asking. The search for identity is a time honored tradition of adolescence, and even adulthood. [Insert your favorite midlife crisis joke here.]
It’s much harder to answer the second part of the question – what do you stand for?
What do I stand for? To answer that, you first must believe in the importance of standing for something. To stand for something is different than to believe in something. To believe can be personal and private, to stand for something implies action.
Standing is silent, but visible. It is not forcing another to stand, but nor is it sitting down, views unknown, controversy avoided.
It feels good, to think that I could stand for something. Not just exist, or search for my own happiness or identity, but decide what I actually STAND for. What significance can I have, beyond my own life, because I stand for something more than myself?
If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re a runner, since this is my running blog. Runners don’t run because it’s easy, they run because it makes them feel good afterwards, it makes them healthier, it makes them stronger, it makes them better.
I think that standing for something can do all those things, too. To stand for something is to acknowledge the significance and importance of the power of one among many, to believe in the power of grass roots movements, to know that each of us must try our best to be part of what is right, and that the difference we make in doing so is far from insignificant. It might be far from enough, too, but that magnifies rather than negates its importance.
Who am I, and what do I stand for?
I am Kelly. I am a mother, a partner, a runner, a vegan, an atheist, a writer, a pacifist, and an environmentalist.
I stand for doing as much as you can each day to live the best and healthiest life you can, causing as little harm to the environment and others in the process.
I stand for reason, and for doing good for goodness’ sake, not because I believe that I will be judged later for what I do, but because I want to do what is right.
I stand for educated parenting, Montessori principles, Positive Discipline, and for doing my due diligence to be the best possible parent I can be.
I stand for nonviolence, education, and good citizenship.
When you think about who you are, it becomes easier to decide what you stand for. Many of the things I stand for are the direct result of some important part of my identity, whether that’s as a mother or an environmentalist.
But I find this question incomplete, or maybe the addition I am about to suggest is implied.
I think the real question is:
Who are you, what do you stand for, and what are you going to do about it?
But perhaps that’s another post.
