I don’t know if you are familiar with David Asscherick, teacher, speaker, and author, but this guy’s a deep sink of knowledge and is a voracious reader.

We were talking about identity, one of yours and my favorite topics here at Friend to Yourself, where we wrestle with what makes me, “Me”.

Considering that all emotions and behaviors come from my brain, and that this can change so easily depending on the health of my brain, and if we define our identity this way… well, we’ve talked about this.

Asscherick shared this amazing poem that I thought you’d love.

Who Am I? (By, Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

Who am I? They often tell me
I would step from my cell’s confinement
calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
like a country squire from his country house.

Who am I? They often tell me
I would talk to my warders
freely and friendly and clearly,
as though it were mine to command.

Who am I? They also tell me
I would bear the days of misfortune
equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one accustomed to win.

Am I then really all that which other men tell of?
Or am I only what I know of myself,
restless and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
struggling for breath,
as though hands were compressing my throat,
yearning for colours, for flowers,
for the voices of birds,
thirsting for words of kindness, for neighbourliness,
trembling with anger at despotisms and petty humiliation,
tossing in expectation of great events,
powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making;
faint, and ready to say farewell to it all?

Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I?
They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.

…thanks for sharing this with me. Keep on!

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