Am I just a piece of plastic?
Yesterday I had the strangest experience of my life - having my hand bag opened in the middle of the day in the middle of a crowded bus and having my wallet stollen.
Strangely enough, with the weighty wallet out of my bag, I felt bereft, lost and without an identity. Of course I mourned the loss of some cash that was in it, but more than anything else, I missed the pieces of plastic that verified my identity.
Driving around this morning without a licence, entering the places I needed to enter to get new ID cards, made me feel strangely vulnerable, naked almost. I kept feeling that with my loss of wallet , I had lost my identity. All these places to which I had access suddenly seemed inaccessible and walking inside them I felt like an intruder, an imposter and even a trespasser.
So am I really that piece of plastic that proclaims me for who I am? Is my identity only defined by that ? What about my name and address, my clothes, my person ?
I once saw on an Oprah show that by handing over your identifying documents, you experience a loss of identity. Today for the first time I realised what that person was trying to say.
Is it that easy to become a non-person ?
Am I really just somebody because a piece of plastic says so?
Strangely enough, with the weighty wallet out of my bag, I felt bereft, lost and without an identity. Of course I mourned the loss of some cash that was in it, but more than anything else, I missed the pieces of plastic that verified my identity.
Driving around this morning without a licence, entering the places I needed to enter to get new ID cards, made me feel strangely vulnerable, naked almost. I kept feeling that with my loss of wallet , I had lost my identity. All these places to which I had access suddenly seemed inaccessible and walking inside them I felt like an intruder, an imposter and even a trespasser.
So am I really that piece of plastic that proclaims me for who I am? Is my identity only defined by that ? What about my name and address, my clothes, my person ?
I once saw on an Oprah show that by handing over your identifying documents, you experience a loss of identity. Today for the first time I realised what that person was trying to say.
Is it that easy to become a non-person ?
Am I really just somebody because a piece of plastic says so?
posted by Penelope Potty Snooper | 11:27 am
2 Comments:
penny i think u should know that it's spelt PHANNY bag, and not fanny bag. it is named after it's inventor phanagen smith.
ha ha. tell me another!
( Good try by the way)
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