Conversations For Transformation: Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

Conversations For Transformation

Essays By Laurence Platt

Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard

And More

I Can Be Anyone

Coombsville Appellation, Napa Valley, California, USA

December 31, 2011


I am indebted to Charli Lizette Trondly who inspired this conversation and contributed material.


I can be anyone.

Now wait! It's not useful to attempt to get this intellectually. You can't get it like that. It's not even useful to equate this to the profound "I am you" in "When I don't know who I am, I serve you; when I know who I am, I am you"  the way Hanuman says it to Ram in the Sanskrit epic Ramayana.

This isn't that. This is: I can be  anyone. This is: I can create  anyone. This is: I can re-create anyone. I'm emphasizing the verbs "be", "create", and "recreate" so you hear them as intentional acts, as deliberate  acts, rather than as mere passive sit back and wait and see  acts.

There's one more thing: this is experiential. You can only get it in your experience.

Having said that: for the purpose of this conversation, it's useful at first  to qualify all of "I can be anyone", "I can create anyone", "I can recreate anyone" with "... in my experience", like "I can be anyone - in my experience", "I can create anyone - in my experience", "I can recreate anyone - in my experience". This makes it exactly clear what I'm speaking about. But actually this qualification isn't really necessary because it's all  in my experience. Yours too. It is  all in your experience, isn't it? Yes?

So to continually qualify "I can be anyone" with "... in my experience" is superfluous. It's enough to say "I can be anyone", it's enough to say "I can create anyone", it's enough to say "I can recreate anyone" without qualifying these statements with "... in my experience" because "... in my experience" is implied. If I tell you I'm thirsty and I ask you for some water to drink, I don't have to qualify my request with "... in a glass", do I? It's implied.

However, rigorously putting the qualification "... in my experience" in place ("I can be anyone - in my experience") then  saying the qualification is superfluous because it's implied, deflates any possibly misheard ego-mania  in it. It blows a razzie  at any possibly misinterpreted grandiose-ness in it.

<aside>

Bear in mind, those who would judge "I can be anyone", "I can create anyone", "I can recreate anyone", as ego-maniacal and grandiose, are also those who would judge "I want the world to work for everyone, with no one and nothing left out" as ego-maniacal and grandiose as well.

<un-aside>

Furthermore, so that we're clear: when I say "I can be anyone", "I can create anyone", "I can recreate anyone", I'm not talking about acting. This conversation isn't about acting. I'm not an Academy Award winning actor, although I do play the role of Laurence Platt  in the long-running drama called "My Life", now showing on the stage of the Planet Earth  theatre. When I distinguish "I can be anyone", "I can create anyone", "I can recreate anyone", I don't require the context  of acting. Yet an actor may also draw on this ability, this ability I have, this same ability you have, this same ability we all have: this ability to be  anyone, this ability to create anyone, this ability to recreate anyone.

Notice my emphasis on be. When I say "I can be  anyone", I'm not talking about a studied skill I've learned or practiced. "I can be anyone" speaks of a natural ability which goeswith  being human (as Alan Watts may have said). When I say "I can be  anyone", I'm calling forth a built in  human ability which can either be on automatic or  performed intentionally, deliberately - like "I can breathe", "I can see", "I can listen", "I can taste", "I can touch.".

Only when I be  someone, only when I create them, only when I re-create them, can I forgive them. Only when I be  someone, only when I create them, only when I recreate them, can I let them go. By the same token, only when I be  someone, only when I create them, only when I recreate them, can I really love, appreciate, honor, respect, and admire them.


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