Be a Roman, when you are in Rome! Haven’t you heard this thousand times and as many others would have? Yes, me too. I devised my method of looking around and observing what others do and did the same as best as I can to become a Roman.
Did I become a Roman or just projected myself to be a Roman avatar? If I answered ‘yes’ to myself to either one of them, I have to question myself as to which is better – altering my ‘self’ to become a Roman or create another ‘self’ within me to become a Roman? Which route would be better to become a Roman? More still was it enough to look and talk like Romans? How can I really understand all about being a Roman? I admit I may not have all the answers, and many others may not. But can we make a start with few assertions to find some satisfying answers?
Every human being has his or her own unique way of looking at the world; is flexible and adaptable to the surroundings he or she is in; is bestowed with the power of imagination; will at some point in time learn to know his or her position and place in the world he or she has entered; and, is skilled at creating and using tools that would either hasten or lessen the work involved in becoming a Roman if answers to ‘how to become a roman’ is known. I am going with these as a starter to help you find some answers of your own.
Notice that being a Roman is that someone else in the Roman community trusts you as a Roman and is interacting with you as a Roman. That someone else in the community may be an individual or a family or an organization or any other entity that this community is made up of. There could be communities of communities including communities like sports communities, charitable communities, religious communities and social communities serving specific purposes. How long will it take for you to make sense of it all? Quicker you are, easier it will become to become a Roman.
It is a tall order to be a Roman. If you take the avatar route, it will take time to get that avatar kick-started. But it is essential to put all the efforts needed to make it happen to not only be a part of the community, but also to help the community from a rich experience that you can bring during the process of understanding. Lot many things will be understood and unlearnt during that process to make yourself come alive and may even reshape your own self the way you may not understand it. It may not be your only effort involved in it, but the cumulative effects of many social interactions with many other entities will propel it towards a newer understanding. It is a testament to such sayings like ‘be a Roman, while you are in Rome’ being still relevant in technology driven societies of 21st century. You may discover that you have not lost your true ‘self’, but has embraced another ‘self’ to co-exist.
This may be a good juncture at which to introduce a concept of meta-self to help you manage your multiple ‘selves’. This is akin to the meta-data concept that technocrats use where they use data to manage data. Because we are all now globally connected through many channels, it is time for us to understand the true meaning of being a Roman in the 21st century is to manage the relationships with many, while maintaining the relationship with your true ‘self’.
This is needed and needed urgently to be reckoned with. What was kept once under the hood is no more under the hood. The visibility and transparency of new orientations, whether sexual or spiritual, has redefined the social interactions that defines your ‘self’ in a manner that accepting the existence of multiple ‘selves’ within you to manage it better by a meta-self is a better proposition to understand and survive the chaotic, and, often sporadic growths that we are witnessing from all corners of the world.
I would dare to propose that being a Roman in Rome has taken on multitudes of meaning or to simply put it to mean the necessities of having multiple Roman avatars co-existing. This is invariably spurred by the global connectivity and an instant access to the social interactions to form from any corner of the world with entities in another corner. By being aware of the fact that you need not necessarily be in Rome to be a Roman, you become more comfortable to assume avatars as and when the social interactions mandate them.
Hence, the learning that is associated or needed for such critical co-existence of multiple ‘selves’ must extend beyond a unidirectional learning to multi-directional learning. Discovering newer dimensions of learning has to become a daily affair. It begs the question – why not immerse yourself in some basic dimensional learning to manage yourself? Perhaps ‘being a Roman while in Rome’ in 21st century is more akin to being a QTIMER?