Assimilation or annihilation... how about a third alternative?

"We have become not a melting pot but a beautiful mosaic. Different people, different beliefs, different yearnings, different dreams." - Jimmy Carter

I define myself by the roles and the specific meaning and intention of those roles. I lay bare how I self-identify so there is no misunderstanding about what I value and how I choose to live. It is as transparent as I can be.

But there are hidden dimensions - struggles that I have not yet figured out, roles that I have yet to claim but are who I am. Ethnicity, culture have their place I'm sure in how others define me... and in how I have defined myself, but for so long I have been on the outside of the common definitions and so I've just delayed answering some of these big questions.

I like the thought of the beautiful mosaic... it doesn't have to be uniform. Each part is just as valid, just as beautiful, just as worthy. We become less, not more, by surrendering our language, our culture, our uniqueness and our history, our shortcomings and our triumphs.