I was at a meeting recently and we were all asked to say some words about ourselves. People spoke about their qualifications, about the jobs they'd done and books they'd written. They were an impressive bunch. But I was getting very bored indeed.
As I came to deliver my own mini-CV I was reminded of something I read recently. George Shultz found himself in a similar situation. He was at a diplomatic meeting and everyone on the table was droning on with their own life and career summaries. Shultz was a decorated war hero, a PhD, chair of many global companies and he had served in major offices of state for three US presidents (which is a record).
Shultz was to the point. 'I am George Shultz – US Marine.'
I so love this. Shultz wasn't engaging in false modesty. Instead he was describing himself in the way that most explained who he was. The ethics of the US Marines were what had marked out everything in his life. The character of a US Marine had got him through everything else. And into the bargain it punctured the flummery of the others in the room. It is as though he is saying character is the most important attribute we have. And it is hard to disagree. His statement works because it conjures up an abiding image.
I wonder what we would say, with just a few lines? What defines us? The older I get the more I think about this kind of thing. What has and does define me? And the older I get I seem to get a bit clearer on the stuff in the past that has and does matter.
I am from Northolt – and although for years I tried to get away from there and did not want to be defined by my birthplace, I am now proudly Northolt. It is hard to put into words what Northolt means if you've never been there, but you'll have to take my word that it's significant.
I am a father and a husband. I would be a completely different person if I were not. But many people could say the same and eventually it wouldn't be specific enough to define who I am.
I was an entrepreneur. That helps a bit – like the Shultz definition it conjures up an image. But there are entrepreneurs and there are entrepreneurs.
I am a writer. Always have been, always will be. But this doesn't give an insight into my character.
And so I come to the event that happened just over a decade ago, although in fact I think my whole life was angled towards it. Northolt. Fatherhood and being a husband. Being an entrepreneur and a writer. And I can probably through in a whole bunch of other stuff too.
On a precious day in a hired lecture hall at a medical school where I had gone to church under protest I realised with precise clarity that there was a God. I soon put a name to that God and began a journey that built on some aspects of my character and added some new components. What's more I began to define myself in relation to something much greater than me. In a way that's what George Shultz was doing – in the advertising world that I came from we called it 'borrowed equity'.
And so like millions of other people around the world I have a new definition. It's as simple as the one given by George Shultz. It strips away flummery. And above all it is true.
I am Steve Morris – follower of Jesus.
Rev Steve Morris is the parish priest of St Cuthbert's North Wembley. Before being a priest he was a writer and ran a brand agency. In the 1980s he tried to become a pop star. Follow him on Twitter @SteveMorris214
