Thoughts on identity

I am blessed to live in our home here in Alameda, which is about 500 feet from the San Francisco Bay, and which has a long greenbelt with many beautiful trees, just out our front door. As part of our home owners dues they maintain the trees and the greenbelts. I was out walking my dog the other day in the greenbelt when I noticed that a tree had a metal tag nailed to it with a number. Then I started checking all of the trees and sure enough, they've all got a number now.

This got me thinking of just how cool that is. Someone cares about each and every one of these trees on an individual basis. Just think about that. If there is a problem with a specific tree, the arborists don't have to say, "yeah, it's the 4th one from the left, 50 feet past the intersection of Cheshire and Sheffield." Now they can simply say, "it's number 377." Or if I want to meet someone at a certain tree, I can just say, "see you at #244." The numbers run consecutively so it's pretty easy to find specific tree. Or I might say, #45 is one of the most beautiful oaks in Alameda.

I realized that what we are dealing with here is the concept of individual identity. That dog you see on the street has no individual identity to you, but your own dog has massive identity -- your children, spouse, and friends have even more. I believe that the definition of true loneliness is literally having no identity, other than your own self-perception. Imagine having no identity -- it would be almost as if you were walking around invisible, or in another dimension. Or more apropos to my initial thoughts, just another tree in the forest.

~ Tom