Is Your Identity Given or Created?

Recently, I watched a TED Talk by Marcus Lyon entitled, "Is Your Identity Given or Created?" The initial think that Marcus notes is that 1.8 Billion images are posted on social media every day. He is a photographer and he talks about a project he is doing on the identity of Brazilians, and what it means to be a Brazilian. Lyon notes that photographs have the ability to "hold time" and help give a an identity and a voice to the unknown. Pictures are important, because behind pictures lie a story.
    He talks about in his project he gathered stories, pictures and DNA of all different Brazilians in order to identify who they were. While DNA biologically identified them, it did not tell me who really were. Identity is so much more than picture too. Lyon notes that "as an audience we make our own judgements about photos. We will look at a photo and identify a person based on what we see. And then there is the physical story of this person that tells us their identity. In a story, a person's identity is not found in their DNA or their physical appearance, but what they have done in their life, and the relationships they have and their personality is truly what makes a person's identity, as Lyon argues. It is what we do for others that truly identifies who we are as a person.
     One of the most significant stories for me that Lyon told was the story about Ana. Lyon brought up Ana's picture and began to tell her story. When Ana was a child her grandmother whom she was very close to, got very sick and she had to have a double leg amputation. Ana was so upset by this she cut off the legs of all of her dolls and turned her room into a hospital. Ana vowed to make sure no one ever suffered like her grandmother did. Ana is now a doctor, who is renowned across Brazil, as an amazing palliative care doctor, meaning she works with individuals who have serious illnesses by helping relieve symptoms and stress that they face.
      When we look at the picture of Ana we would not know how much her job means to her, or why she chose to become a doctor. For all we know she could just play a doctor on TV.

Photo of Ana taken by Marcus Lyon (Somos Brasil)

Lyon ends his talk by asking the following question, "When we ponder the 'Who am I question' consider that we truly grow our identities when we are guiding lights not only to ourselves but to others." In other words our identity is ever growing and the only way we can grow ourselves as a person is to be a beacon and advocate for those who are struggling.

            Here is a link to the TED talk, Is your Identity given or created? by Marcus Lyon

  

                              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tJKGZ_xSZ0