Doing and being

You can do it, or you can be it.  I mean that the things we do seem to have two different kinds of status:  there are things to do, which are at arm's length from our identities, and things to be, which are actually part of how we define and describe ourselves.  Think of someone who says "I'm an actress - but right now I'm waiting tables to support myself." An actress is something to be; waiting tables is something to do.  It's possible to imagine someone saying the opposite:  "I'm a waitress - but right now I'm doing some acting to get my name out in the community." That would have a different meaning, though, and it would be a more suprising meaning.  The same actions can be things to do or things to be, we see a difference between those kinds of things, and some actions are expected to be more likely one kind or the other even though they can fall into either category. [1139 words...]