Who are you? (No, really)
“We can spend our lives letting the world tell us who we are. Sane or insane. Saints or sex addicts. Heroes or victims. Letting history tell us how good or bad we are. Letting our past decide our future. Or we can decide for ourselves. And maybe it's our job to invent something better.” ― Chuck Palahniuk, Choke
The road to self discovery is long no matter what age. And no matter what anyone tells you, it's seldom easy. Landmines of self-sabotage in the face of normalcy tend to go off just as we start to believe we are finally at a place of having our shit together. Something always trips us; and it's usually us.But the harder we fall the more we grow. And as our love affair with ourself evolves, caring about others' perception of us falls by the wayside into the abyss of It's None Of My Business. Whether someone tells you to your face, texts or emails you a colorful yarn of who [they think] you are, it doesn't matter. The only thing that does is what we think of us.It's an excellent mantra: What other people think of me is none of my business. But what do we think about who we are? Do we know - really?Part of being younger is feeling out theories and testing the waters in our own life rafts. We choose partners who are wrong for us - falling in love with love, swearing that it's the real deal. We don't listen to the universe with her many obvious warning signs. We instead project our fears on to others, instead of focusing on why we make the choices we do. It's all a tightrope of very personal whys; a delicate balance that leads us to knowing our true self with each tumble and rise.Whenever I'm tested from outside distractions on my road to self awareness and love, I'm always reminded of the final scene in HBO's Six Feet Under.Has it really been over a decade - twelve years to be exact - since we said goodbye to our favorite dysfunctional family? Long before Michael C. Hall mastered the art of vigilante murder as Dexter and Peter Krause's Adam Braverman taught us how to be better fathers in Parenthood, creator and producer Alan Ball kept us enthralled with the Fisher family.With so much on-line video streaming at the ready these days, my painting a picture of Six Feet Under for those who've not experienced the ride wouldn't serve Alan's vision as well as buckling in for yourself would. Just know that the same mastermind who delivered American Beauty and True Blood does not disappoint with this unique dramedy about life and death, love and longing and deep insight born from sorrow and struggle. Its flavors are unique with a side of dark humor wrapped with cynicism and sprinkled with hope - just when you thought life was doomed to fail. To some, Six was an acquired taste while others wanted to lick the spoon as the ending credits ran every week - pondering and personalizing life lessons and deep meaning behind the minutia of every day life.As a woman in her mid-thirties when the series wrapped, I found myself captivated by the final scene more than any other in the show's five-year run. The youngest sibling Claire, artist and dreamer, drives to her new life away from California to uncharted waters in The Big Apple. I'm always instantly connected to my younger self and how hard it was to leave my old Rock Star Life behind in my twenties whenever I revisit the this scene. Without saying a word, actress (who plays Claire) Lauren Ambrose nails it; that feeling of being lost and excited, afraid but eager.Sometimes no words are needed.Whether you've seen Six or not, the message is universal. Anything that inspires us to dig deep into learning about who we are is a gift. Even those long emails and texts from people claiming to know us is a gift. No matter how wrong they are, they help us realize how far we've come and remind us that everyone has their own road and some of us may have farther to go before arriving at their own place of self certainty.Once we learn how to stay in our own lane and balance personal longing with fear, a new kind of growth happens. No longer are we so focused on others' stories and how they affect our own. There's a certain freedom in lifting the veil of worry about what others think. Evolving means making it more about us; who we are, what we want, and how we can serve our happiness.And when we get to a place of comfort and healing something magical happens. We live from our raw truth, and this energy is echoed into those around us. True happiness attracts the same. Just as toxic people can bring you down, surrounding yourself with like-minded people who are in a place of self awareness and honest insight does wonders for our own path to fulfillment.It doesn't matter how many times I've seen the final scene in Six Feet Under, it never fails. The combination of Claire's face saying nothing and everything, my personal connection with starting a new life after stripping, and hearing Sia's hauntingly poetic tune, Breathe Me makes me lose my shit. Not that this is a bad thing. There's no better way to find yourself than in the throes of remembering how far you've come.
Final Scene in HBO's Six Feet Under:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwARV9tPUw?rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0]