What is Identity?

I want to say that I will probably do a terrible job of a title like this, but the title seems the best way to start.

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My dear friend Lady W. helped me along inadvertently.

1. Identity is whatever makes you you. Your core. Essence. Whatever. Hooray for lameness- it seems to show how ambiguous this topic is.

2. One's true identity can never include anything wrong- sinful, destructive to oneself or others in any way. (This is the idea that came from Lady W.)

3. Identity is not something we create or discover directly. By thinking of ourselves, looking in at ourselves, we lose any ability to really see ourselves. We look inside at the emptiness that is us, trying to find things in it, and not seeing any.

4. Our Selves can be seen only through our imprint on the world around us. Firstly we know our distinctness physically by the fact that our bodies get in the way of other things and can't take the same space like a spirit does- we are not all thought. Secondly we know our wills are there because they butt up against the wills of others.

5. Strangely enough, it seems that we stay mentally healthy largely by having an influence and impact on the world through creating things, changing things (for the better, I hope), and just generally making a nuisance of ourselves by affecting others. I seem to always think I'll have a negative effect, so I'm making fun of myself.

6. We know ourselves in relation to what is not us... even understanding ourselves through our affect on ourselves by understanding how others affect themselves (sorry if this is confusing; disregard if it is). I wonder if we couldn't know about ourselves without interacting with people- we know we exist because people exist which we are not. 

7. We see who we are by comparison with others. We know about our attributes because someone else doesn't have those attributes (it doesn't matter who does have the attribute). If everyone had all the same character, it would not be character- it would just be clumped in the definition of Human. The way we know that a thing is not another thing is through whatever element in that thing is necessary for it to be what it is, and either not present or unnecessary in another thing.

I don't know if those are all the points I have in my head about identity itself. There is always the negative, but the negative doesn't know when to shut up. There is a lot that can be said about what something is not, than what it is.