"Imagine the following situation: Bob X from B. Town meets John Z at a barbeque. John Z introduces himself as 'John Z from Pretoria' and holds out his hand. Bob X smiles politely, shakes John's hand and introduces himself as 'John Z from Pretoria'." "In 2000 I was confronted again, this time in Taiwan, with people to whom I had to identify myself after once again functioning for a year in relatively obscure anonymity - where the most basic information about my person was good enough." "In many cases, who and what we are supposed to be, with a splash of paint here and there to make ourselves unique to some extent, is good enough, and this identity is then presented as an answer to who we are." "After we are born we become aware of the fact that we are something among other things and someone among other someones, and that it is expected of us to function as the something that we are (don't act as if you're a table or a pet) and also to function as someone." "Some people end up as caricatures of the information they receive from the environment about what they should be and how they should act. These puzzle caricatures are seemingly unaware of how clearly the seams show between the sometimes hackneyed parts from which their socially functioning personas are compiled." "Fact is that people sometimes burn up decades trying to sort out what they are supposed to do. They spend years looking for 'true' answers, their 'real' selves, their 'right' place in the world, where they supposedly 'really' belong ... without realising they basically have two choices: accept to a large extent your given self and function as such, within the particular framework of given place and time, or choose who and what you want to be, and where." "Identity that is recognised and to a degree approved by the community is therefore primarily required for APPEARANCE. Considering this relationship between identity and appearance at specific time and place, what would be the value of not appearing?" "It should instil confidence to know you can change environments and still remain the same ... still be "me" ... still retain the same identity ... continue to function as a person who is essentially related to the "I" of yesterday, and ten years ago, in a half-dozen places on two continents." "If a primary objective of the SOURCE is to enable people to develop a good idea of who and what they are and to make functioning possible, what is the primary purpose of human existence? To establish identity and to function successfully? What is 'successful functioning'? Survival? I don't think so." "When you do not appear, you do not feel embarrassed; you do not need to explain yourself; you do not need to apologise for aspects of your life or the state of your living space." "These are but a few questions for which you can pinch off an hour or so if you have the time - if you find yourself in a place where you know no one, where for the moment there will be no familiar voices to echo your own, or to talk you down, or to offer support." "If you do not know what you want to do with your life, what do you do with your life? How do you function? Why do you live as you live, where you live and with whom you live? Why do you do the work you do? Why do you wear the specific clothes you wear?" "What would a person discover if they enter the wilderness for any length of time, without the comfort of a dentist or a doctor, or the luxury of running water and a flush toilet and toilet paper, or the entertainment provided by TV, or the internet, or newspapers and books, or friends, or movie theatres? Indeed, what would you find without love - if you have a vague idea how to find what you cannot necessarily articulate?"