This came to mind after reading Pam White’s blog post.  May all beings be free from suffering, may all beings be peaceful.  May all beings be free from mistaken identity.

What is a mistaken identity?  How can we tell?  As an actor and a performer, different identities are my stock in trade.  They become mistaken if I get stuck in them, or start to believe that there are too many points of connection between myself and a character or role.  When we are older, I believe, it is harder to sustain a mistaken identity.  There is too much evidence accumulated, too many instances of un-masking, and it is too much effort to sustain the theater of false personae.

For the young, though, especially those who have had a terrible, traumatic childhood, mistaken identity can be a great La Brea tarpit.  What I am learning, through my research into adoption and trauma, is that children who lose everything when they are very young – before the age of two especially – can re-enact that loss and may chose self-destructive, delusional paths in a confused search for identity. The problem for parents is that those alarming choices can become causes, can take on missionary zeal, can become cemented in rebellion, resistance and fear.

My own youthful mistaken identities nearly killed me.  The problem is that if you don’t unmask, don’t see through the haze of false selves, your bones will be found there in the pits, sunk into the delusional muck. I pray for my beloved child, that this mistaken identity releases her before it is too late.