What Do You Fight For?

I have a working theory.

It’s my unified theory for figuring people out. This may prove to be wrong, but at this moment, it seems accurate based on my observations. See if it works for you.

What we are is defined by what we will fight for.

What we defend.

What we work to protect, to keep intact: that’s who we really are.

I have fought and, if the need arises again, will fight for my kids. I fight to stay active, to fend off the encroachment of age and added pounds. I protect my time alone, the processing I need to write. My writing, then, is what I fight for. I don’t make the same effort to play the piano.

I fought to move my life to Portland. To have a home where I would be surrounded by natural beauty every day. I fought against concrete, suburbia, against conformity and complacency. I fought for change at the risk of leaving behind everything I knew.

Tim fights for consistency. His routine is inviolable.

What do you fight for?

Can we change who we are based on what we defend?

Can we alter our own definition of ourselves by choosing not to fight for something any longer? Or is that urge to protect hardwired into who we are?

Are we acting out our inherent natures or are we creating them?

I’m sure some ontologist has already thought of these things, some hermeneutics genius I have never read. There is nothing new under the sun.

But this theory is wending its way through my system right now. I’m trying it out, seeing if it stands up.

What do you fight for?