We Are Many

I am not sure we have ever been good at accepting the different selves we hold within nor any better at accepting the different selves of another person. We may notice various facets – depending on the day, the situation, the conversation and interlocutors … – but are still tempted to seek perfect consistency, if not an infallible ‘best self’ at any time in any place.

 

Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘We are many’ exemplifies this wrestling. Lamenting how often he has fallen short of his expectations of himself (rather his idealized self), the ‘I’ in the poem wishes he could call up his real self, his true self whenever he needs him – to say or do the right thing at the right time, always.

 

‘I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.’ (Romans 7:15) comes to mind. And the human being Paul himself comes to mind; this multi-faceted figure, sometimes impossibly irritating, sometimes radiating with God’s love. I am not sure we have ever been good at accepting each other’s diversity of selves, but it feels particularly hard these days. ‘Where is mercy? Where is forgiveness?’ I hear people say. Have we become merciless?

 

I take reassurance in trusting that God knows all the different selves each of us holds within – the courageous and the reluctant ones; the selfish and the generous; the angry and the peaceful ones … – and that God does not require any of us to be our best self before listening or being with us. I feel prompted to discern those different selves and enable a conversation within. Recognising my own multiplicity, might I be more compassionate and generous towards another human being experiencing just the same challenge?