Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it. That is your punishment. But if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing — an actor, a writer — I am a person who does things — I write, I act — and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun. — Stephen Fry

The exact Wilde quote to which Fry is referring is this: “If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life — but what I will call the artistic life — if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.” — Oscar Wilde

I relate to this in general, but including today. Mom and Dad are here, and Dad was telling me about someone who recently asked him, “How’s Sharon?” When I asked him how he responded, he said, “I told them you were great! That you have 12 employees and a successful business and a beautiful house on the lake.” I know that’s all he can see. I know he means well. But I wish he’d see ME, know ME…not the things I achieve or do.