As the Democrats met to declare to the nation who they are and how they want to be known, it occurred to me that the task of identity is getting more complicated — and riskier — for all of us.
What’s your name? Doesn’t matter that much anymore.
It all starts out simple enough. You are born and given a name. But before you’re placed in your mother’s arms, you have a different identity to the hospital system that ushered you aboard the planet, and then you’re in the mix.
The name is no longer enough. There are numbers that follow it and only multiply going forward.
Address, Social Security numbers, dates and place of birth including town, county, state and country. Driver’s license, school and college documents, government I.D. If you join the military services, they will give you a number and warn you that you had better never forget it, or else. I still remember mine.
To marketers, I am bank account numbers, my telephone, credit cards or a prospect list sold on the web. They will never forget me.
Life was easier when that was about the limit of it all.
Before the new and improved health care, you could call your doctor’s office, give a person your name, make the appointment, sign in at the desk and see the doc. Get the prescription, visit the pharmacy, pick up the meds, pay the bill. Go back to the bad habits of an uncluttered life.
These days, for most dealing with the medical world, a name is only the first step that will lead to filling out legal forms running more pages than a textbook on a tiny cellphone keyboard. If you do not fill out clerical work in advance of your appointment, you risk getting a nasty-face emoji. So, everybody lies and checks the boxes saying they read it and understand legalese that would stump a Supreme Court justice. Well, a real legal mind.
My parents drilled home the idea that I would be known for the company I keep, and so would my family name. A bookend to that rule was that your real identity would be reflected by values and character. What you do, more than what you say to be popular.
The Republicans have had their convention. They seemed to spend most of their time calling the Democrats names, talking about how rotten the world is and ignoring the sins of their beloved leader.
So far, the Democrats have taken a more positive, higher road to earn the responsibilities of leadership, and not just victory. They have faith in the future.
Which party stands for who we are? Who we aspire to be? Who we can be with the right effort?
We’re seeing the versions they want us to be. Which one reflects you?
Conventions and campaign slogans are little more than labels.
Labels are like those sticky things you can’t get off the coffee cup you buy; display and presentation are the first chapters in marketing.
Contents are found in the footnotes and, increasingly, in the small print of the warnings.
Dean Minnich writes from Westminster.