I belong to the "Me Party"

After concluding a light philosophical discussion with three of my children, I now realize that I am prehistoric, antiquated,old school and the sole surviving relic of a neanderthal period. My children believe I am politically, a cave dweller with the social inclination of hunter/gatherers and morally related to the woolly mammoth.

When I was growing up it was much easier to define people. My father defined everyone politically. In his day you were republican or democrat, period. My mother defined everyone according to religious affiliation and for her, that was divided simply as catholic or protestant. My father taught me the principles of enlightenment and mom, the virtues of civility.

Today, defining who you are, necessitates a reference dictionary in one hand and a resume in the other. You can choose from Right, left, right of center, left of center, center, liberal, conservative, moderate, republican, democrat, independent, mainstream, evangelical, traditionalist, fundamentalist or if all these fail, you can be an exhibitionist. Of course if one of these still doesn't define you, there's a Tea Party that doesn't do anything having to do with tea, but, you can register and become defined.

A few years ago, after concluding the only purpose the two parties were committed to, was prohibiting the advancement of the other, I change affiliations and became an independent. I had always considered myself independent, but, absent the registration necessary today, how could I be really sure who I was? Everywhere I go they want to define me. I went to church and they wanted me to sign a "confession of faith". Apparently God doesn't recognize us without the proper identification! If He doesn't know who I am, I'm really in trouble. Affiliations help to define who I am and tell me what I think so that when I forget, they can tell me. The problem is I find myself in opposition to most of (what they think, I think) and I end up more confused than I was before I was defined. The world today wants to categorize, characterize, homogenize, colonize and generalize who I am. As soon as I affiliate, they tell me what I think, who to hang with and where to go to church. If I haven't yet decided what I think, there are 487 media analyst who work 24/7 to tell me what I think based on my stupid registration.

I don't really know who my children are, but that's not surprising, since I'm not sure of their registered affiliations. I'm sure of who my wife is however, and what she thinks. I do know, that there is no category sufficient to define or explain her. What I do know is that she is a mystery and the analyst does not exist that can appoint a tidy little label defining her. She is unwrapped, one cause at a time, one issue at a time and one day at a time. Her ideology flitters like a butterfly and comes to rest without contention where ever the flower grows. If I ask her who she is, she smiles and says " I'm me".

I've decided to change affiliation again. I'm joining the "Me Party". If for no other reason, I'd like to tell someone what I think, instead of some affiliate member assuming what I think. When they ask me who I am, I will proudly proclaim, I am somewhat prehistoric, somewhat of a Neanderthal. The only affiliation I have is one to marriage and one to me. If you want to know what I think you will have to ask - ME!