Too often, we define ourselves by our jobs in this world: "I work at X," "I'm so and so's mother, ____'s wife." But when those relationships have expired, matured or evaporated, what's left?

What is causing us to relate to ourself in the third person, to want to turn ourself into a product? Are we afraid that if we don't continually tell the world who we are that we will be invisible?

I had to shed that part of my identity that was holding me back: my attachment to a particular job title, office configuration, box on the org chart, etc. Something had to die.

My son and I are both going through a transition. We are a bit disoriented and excited, both of us embarking on our own adventure: me with my changing identity, and him his next year in college.

No ordinary bubble collapsed. America was already going through a crisis of identity. I can only see this as a spiritual crisis that was long in the making.