It’s A New Year:
Embrace Your MP’s.
By: Matthew Cook

Relax. I’m not suggesting that you hug the Military Police. It’s an even scarier idea: Get better acquainted with your Multiple Personalities. You know who I’m talking about. They’re the little voices in our heads we hear now and then but are afraid to acknowledge. Parents teach early in life that we should be of strong character: that character reflects the morals, values, ethics and ideals that guide behavior and integrity is a measure of the stability of our character. Over time, character helps us to create our own rules of conduct and to predict the consequences of our actions in various situations. That predictability combined with individual aptitudes, talents, and skills helps to shape a unique sense of self.

As young adults, we start defining ourselves in terms of a distinct personality by which others come to know us. For example, you might consider yourself a “Jock,” a “Geek,” or a “Comedian.” Too often, however, these identity tags become constraints which stunt our growth. They restrict our life experiences as we begin to limit our interactions with people to those behaviors which we think they expect from us in our adopted roles. A Jock is macho, not nurturing, right? The Geek is not likely to be found shooting the tube at the X-Games, right? And people certainly don’t expect a Comedian to be sentimental.

But what about those little voices? We all hear them whispering from time to time. Who are they? They are the other personalities in each one of us which we haven’t allowed to develop because they seem incompatible with our singular, dominant identity. Well, guess what? The voices are never going away because we are not one-dimensional; we are complex creatures with conflicting needs and desires which change as we go about living and learning day to day. To become all that we are capable of becoming in life, we must allow for the expression of not only our dominant personality, but our subordinate personalities as well. In July of 2003, Yen magazine published an article in which the author described a host of different personality tendencies that co-exist inside every one of us. The list included the Rule-maker, Rebel, Cautious Observer, Pleaser, Critic, Pusher, Thinker, Perfectionist, Inner Teacher, Existentialist and yes, even Slob. That’s a lot of subordinates!

My all time favorite movie character is Indiana Jones. Talk about multiple personalities: He was at once a professor, an adventurer, and a lover. A boy could pick worse role models. I’m convinced that it was my hero, Indy, who inspired me to take a giant leap of faith. Family and friends probably would tag me as a scholar: logical, reflective, philosophical, analytical, and cautious. It came as no small surprise to my parents, therefore, when I announced upon arrival at New Zealand’s Franz Joseph Glacier that I had a burning desire to sky dive over it. I was 15 years old at the time, and neither my mother nor my father considered jumping out of a plane from 15,000 feet a particularly brilliant idea.

So, the scholar in me went online and, after a week of focused research, turned up enough safety statistics to argue my case convincingly. Reluctantly they let me go up.

I must admit, it was just before exiting the door of the plane that I heard a faint voice ask, “WHAT in the world were you THINKING?!!” And it wasn’t until I landed safely that I answered myself smugly, “That wasn’t me; must have been my other self. I would never do anything that reckless.” Just then another voice whispered, “Ahhh, but wouldn’t it have been nice as you swooped down to have rescued a beautiful maiden in distress?”

Now that I think about it, jumping was a hoot! And WE might even do it again some day. Anyone know where to find a maiden in distress?