The Waves Are Not the Ocean

On ego.

John Gorman
4 min readAug 5, 2023
Photo by Brett Meliti on Unsplash

I’ve seen the real you. It is not your Audi; it is not your die-cut business card; it is not your perfectly-pressed non-iron button-up. It is inside all of that, yet apart from it.

It’s not your words or your deeds.

It’s not your church or your faith.

It’s not your mood or your health.

It’s not your friends or your family.

It’s not your country, your race, your culture.

It’s not your dreams, your habits, or your history.

It’s not your morning coffee to kick-start your day.

It’s not your ambitions, your achievements, or your failures.

It’s not where you’ve been, where you are, or where you’re going.

It’s not the cut of your bicep, the spare tire around your waist, the medals you’ve won, or the stories you’ve told.

All of the above are waves; you are an ocean.

Ego

When we talk about ego, we are talking about an image — not the ocean itself, but a picture of the ocean we make in our minds or the way we see it when we’re standing on the coast.

That picture can change; it looks different to everyone. Hawai’i? Tierra del Fuego…

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John Gorman

Yarn Spinner + Brand Builder + Renegade. Award-winning storyteller with several million served. For inquiries: johngormanwriter@gmail.com