Albeit, I Am What I Am

I listen to a lot of local sports talk radio on my way to work every day.  There is one caller in particular that has really been making me laugh of late.  It isn’t what he’s talking about that makes me laugh.  It isn’t that he basically parrots what he has read on  message boards during the night before.  No, it’s his use of a certain word that makes me laugh.  What word is it?

Albeit.

Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m a typical East Tennessee hillbilly.  I cannot think of a time that I would ever use the word albeit in a sentence when I am talking to someone, much less when I am talking to them on the radio.  I’m sure that he heard someone use on the radio or TV one time and thought that it would be a good word to add to his vocabulary.  And truthfully, it’s not a bad word.  It just doesn’t fit the character of who he is or what he’s all about.  However, I’m going to cut him a break going forward..

Why?

Because I’m guilty of the same thing.  No, not of using the word albeit, but of not being true to who I am.  So are you.  We all pretend to be someone we’re not from time to time.  I know someone whose favorite word is mischievous.  She pronounces it “mischievious”.  She looks for opportunities to slip that word into conversation.  She thinks it makes her sound like what she’s not.  Unfortunately, it highlights exactly who she is.  By the way, this same person would also ask me to go places with her husband “and I” sometimes at one point in my life.  If I used text and Twitter abbreviations, I would do an SMH right now.

I’ve been guilty of it over the past few weeks.  I did it with my blog.  I tried to come up with special days to give myself something to write about.  I wrote about dreams on Monday.  Two for Tuesday.  Twitterific Thursday.  Follow Friday.  Why?  I saw other bloggers doing similar things.  I was trying to write their posts on my blog.   I painted myself into a corner.  I wasn’t being me.  I was being someone else.  (By the way, if you checked out my blog yesterday, you saw that I kept Twitterific Thursday.  I ended up liking that one.)

The apostle Paul was someone who was comfortable with who he was.  He considered himself the least of the apostles, not worthy of being called to his place in life.  He said that “by the grace of God, I am what I am.”

My favorite sailor man, Popeye, seemed to be comfortable with himself.  Despite Olive Oyl flirting with Bluto and constantly having to battle him, Popeye could still say, “I yam what I yam!!!”

Me?  I’m a husband, a father, and a follower of Christ.  I am a runner, a dreamer and a blogger.  I am many things…… albeit, I am what I am.

How about you?  Are you comfortable with who you are?