I hereby declare a war against the oppression of definition.

Defining oneself is oppressive.

i.e. I am stupid, I am no good at math, I am not artistic, I am blah blah blah

Tell yourself something long enough and you'll believe it, you'll live it, you'll become it.

My 7th grade teacher once told us that to become something, you first have to lie to yourself about it sort of... tell yourself you are what you are desiring to become... pretend to be it... act like you are that.. and someday.. you will be whatever it is you were aiming for. (That woman was a mean but wise old lady who i gave much hell as a 12 year old)

You can trick yourself into becoming something you aren't at the moment.

I never knew I was good at math until college. Throughout grade school and high school I was average, even when I tried. I didn't know our teachers just really sucked! I get to college and discover that calculus is fun and that I loved statistics. Strange how things work. And for most of my life I proclaimed, I am no good at math! But I was after all..

I mathematically disadvantaged myself (kind of) because I viewed myself as mathematically stupid. But then I got pissed at the world and wanted to make people angry by succeeding at something.. and by golly it worked. And I can do math. (even if that's all I can do)

I don't know if this makes any sense.. but defining yourself by a few events, is a bad idea. People change. Things change.

The above was hatched in an EFTSOE to a friend in Minneapolis.

Definition, like all that is powerful, is something of a double-edged sword.

You can use it to oppress... I am stupid, I can't do math, I am weak.

But they can also be used to empower... I am smart, I can do math, I am strong.