To be or to do...

“You do you, and let me do me.” 

Besides being grammatically bad, this little compound sentence is philosophically questionable.

What does it mean to “do me”? I do not “do me” I am myself. What I do is not me, though it may reflect on

 who I am and certainly other people are prone to define people by what they do.

We call someone who steals a thief, unless it was from a family member or friend or from a bad guy. (As 

everybody knows, if it is done to a bad guy, it doesn’t really count. At least--that's what the movies tell us.)

 Now, let’s take a look at this.  Stealing is the thing done. Who is the person, though?  Maybe this is 

someone who lost his job and whose children are hungry.  Maybe this is the one time he has ever stolen. 

Do we say, “Thief! That is who you are”?

I do a lot of things; I have been an amateur actress, artist, poet and writer. I dream and scribble and 

converse within myself. I sing and even lead songs, I teach and I study.  If I do not act, I am still myself. 

If I lost my hands or my voice I would still be “me.” Take away my work, I still exist, for all the doings are 

merely expressions of me. Divide my soul from my body, I still exist, but now beyond this present life on 

earth, I go to judgment and, by God’s grace, to live eternally.

What need will there be in heaven for teachers or scribblers or actors? 

But, there may we lose ourselves in the wonder of God and find ourselves in His embrace.