{"id":2179,"date":"2017-01-16T17:47:29","date_gmt":"2017-01-17T00:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/?p=2179"},"modified":"2017-01-16T21:05:09","modified_gmt":"2017-01-17T04:05:09","slug":"who-am-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2179","title":{"rendered":"Who Am I?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/flag-for-facebook.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/flag-for-facebook-138x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"138\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-2181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/flag-for-facebook-138x300.jpg 138w, https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/flag-for-facebook-230x501.jpg 230w, https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/flag-for-facebook.jpg 346w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 138px) 100vw, 138px\" \/><\/a>\u201cAm I still the person I have spent a lifetime becoming, and do I still want to be that person?\u201d asks Mary Catherine Bateson in \u201cComposing a Further Life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bateson says that identity crises are not only for teens but are \u201crevisited in every stage of life.\u201d That\u2019s why she recommends reflecting on one\u2019s past as a prelude to planning the future.<\/p>\n<p>So I did that. I divided life into childhood, teen years, my 20s when I was a camp director, 30s and early 40s when I pastored a church, and 43-on when I taught college English. In each category I listed things I most enjoyed.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022\tAdventure (it started in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bestyears.com\/adventure.html\" target=\"_blank\">childhood<\/a>)<br \/>\n\u2022\tDreaming\/Innovating\/Organizing (I like to design the adventure and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2sOaaKL_X5E\" target=\"_blank\">take others along with me<\/a>)<br \/>\n\u2022\tCommunicating\/Teaching (especially if it inspires <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZL8C6nNeknY\" target=\"_blank\">hope in others<\/a>)<br \/>\n\u2022\tEnjoying nature and the outdoors (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=YWyTvApHE7Q\" target=\"_blank\">where I like to do all the above<\/a>)<\/p>\n<p>So what does this tell me about my still-murky future?<\/p>\n<p>Suggestions?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cAm I still the person I have spent a lifetime becoming, and do I still want to be that person?\u201d asks Mary Catherine Bateson in \u201cComposing a Further Life.\u201d Bateson says that identity crises are not only for teens but are \u201crevisited in every stage of life.\u201d That\u2019s why she recommends reflecting on one\u2019s past [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2183,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2179\/revisions\/2183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}