This post is not for fluffheads. You have been warned.

Who am I? The things in life that define a person: His friends, his talents, his character, what would he be without them? What would I be if the layers were peeled away, and all that's left is the very innermost core? It would be wrong in this case to say that I would be an "empty shell", because in this case I described these things as "layers", peeled on from the outside. A veneer, a facade? Of that I know not.

There are two ways of looking at the matter at hand. The things that define a person, aforementioned his friends, his character and everything else can be portrayed in two ways. One, these things can be intepreted as "layers", unwrapped from the outside. Two, these things can be intrepreted as the "core" of a person. Thus if I were to descirbe the things in life that describe a person as being his "core", then it would be correct in this case, then, to say that if I were to remove my "core", I would be nothing but an empty shell. I am not trying to obfuscate matters by typing barely coherent jargon, but sometimes the details, though impossible to undertand at first end up allowing the person who makes the effort to read and absorb every line, every sentence to have an even deeper understanding of the subject matter. It's like theology in Catholicism; the casual reader will never be able to understand all the jargon and dogma, but those who really want to understand the faith innately will make the effort to read and understand all of it. I digress somewhat from the original topic on this, but here is my point: Going into the details can knock the casual reader off his feet, but can allow those who want read some coherence into what I am saying to have an even deeper understanding of all of this.

To summarise what I have said thus far to allow the reader to digest, I am asking myself what perhaps is one of the most rhetorical questions mankind has faced, one that ranks among asking what our purpose on this earth is, one that is equivalent to asking why we live. Maybe there is no answer, but the debate goes on just the same. The question I am asking is who I really am underneath it all, or without the defining aspects of my core, depending on which viewpoint you take.

Who am I? What is is really like, to one day have everything taken away, when your friends aren't really your friends? When you have nothing left? Your personality, character taken away? Can it even be taken away? What if, one day each layer is slowly peeled away one by one, what would be left? The soul? If that is the case, then nothing really has been taken away except your body, after all, the soul is supposed to be your essence, is it not?

If the soul is your essence, then the expression that a person devoid of all things that defines him is an "empty shell" would not be correct, because a person who is an empty shell doesn't have a soul.

Who am I, then?