atheist
I try on ten thousand names.
I am what I am.
Choose one! Quickly! - Atheist.
Notes for the analytically minded.
I've been playing with this "inverted haiku" form. Why? *shrug* Just because. It's an arbitrary self-imposed discipline. It's teasingly close to a recognisable form without conforming. *grin*
I was playing with notions of the arbitrary nature of labels. Combined with the fluidity of my mental processes recently, calling myself anything really does feel like trying on clothes. Yet, I wear clothes (sometimes), and I understand the utility of naming. Going out naked in public shocks people! Refer also the Daoist theory of non-reification of names, and deconstruction.
Stepping right along. It's not possible for this to mean anything, and yet, I meant something. I meant several things that will be recognised differently by different people. Post-modernism, or just impishness?
Ten thousand? Daoism again. The ten thousand (or myriad) things is the material world. The world as seen divided up into discrete pieces, which is what words, names, labels are most useful for rendering.
Beyond names, reality continues to exist. I wrote this within the context of a discussion about God, in part. Perhaps "I am that / who I am" might have been a tougher middle line - Google tetragrammaton, Exodus if you're still hazy - but I like fuzzy references. They give the reader more room to move.
Returning to arbitrary choice, I reflect that atheist suits me well. It's comfortable, well-worn, and not likely to get me arrested or harrassed in my common social circles. Makes it a useful, easy, quick choice, though it doesn't tell the whole story. But then, no single word would.
The word "atheist" was the first one written, not the last. It fitted the discussion I was having at the time. If I worked forward through the process, I'd more often choose agnostic. Sometimes I affect radical agnostic.