imprint

I heard some advice once talking about steroids... and this seems real familiar, so I may have already written about it... don't know, don't really care right now. Anyway, the point was that you shouldn't identify with that version of you - in other words, you shouldn't use that to help define who you are... because at some point you will have to stop doing that, and then what? Suddenly you have an identity crisis? but then if you look at it, can't you say that about anything? everything? nothing lasts forever, so aren't we at risk for suddenly losing everything we use to make up who we are? I like music. I look for musical styles and compositions that reflect who I am and the mood I'm in at the time - and in doing so, I am using music to help define me as a person .... but what if I wake up deaf tomorrow? I no longer have that option of having music define me... this scenario is infinite - I guess really, what I'm wondering is what should we use to define who we are? experiences? beliefs? morals? judgment? none of that is permanent - all of it can change so then are we ever really who we think we are? if the foundataion on which we build our personalities is mutable, then how can we ever really be sure of who we are? Or maybe we just continue down the road on auto pilot - basing our identity on the last thing we were able to use for that identity - the last known good, as it were... life imitating art, imitating life, imitating art.... ad infinitum