Who ARE You, At Base?

The question of primary identity.

Back in 2003, I was the senior class President of Georgetown University (I’ve fallen far, I know) and I got to speak not at commencement, but at an earlier-week event called “Convocation.” The keynote that day was Maria Shriver, so I got to meet her in the green room. She had her dad (“Sgt. Shriver”) with her, and I remember telling my mom about this experience, and the first thing my mom said was, “He used to secure whores for the Kennedy brothers,” which is probably accurate but also tells you quite a bit about my mom, I suppose. Anyway, Maria Shriver was very nice. She even told me later at a reception that she liked my speech, and I have to say, it was a good speech. Is this the oratorical equivalent of peaking in high school? Perhaps.

Well, since that fine day in May of 2003, Maria has been through quite a lot — her marriage ended, her daughter married Chris Pratt, she has grandkids now, her son was a star on Season 3 of White Lotus, she’s apparently drinking buddies with Hoda Kotb, and her cousin somehow now runs the entire American health operation — and I believe she has a new-ish book called “I Am Maria.”

The title is about identity and which identity you put forth vs. the ones that actually matter and define you. In her case, for years she was a “Kennedy,” which is among the higher identities you can have in American life. I’d personally argue that title is sullied now, but hey, we all love nostalgia. At some point, she was “a journalist.” At another point, “a mom.” For a lot of people, she was probably “Arnold’s wife,” because you have to remember, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there was no bigger movie star than AH-NOLD. I am more a True Lies guy than a T2 guy, but hey, sue me.

I never would have had Maria Shriver and Simon Sinek as “besties” on any societal bingo card, but apparently that’s also true, and here they are talking for 41 minutes about various things:

Obviously she is promoting a book here, but it doesn’t directly come off as her promoting a book. It seems like she is really trying to discuss various experiences in her life and how they formed who she is at, I believe, 69. (That’s her age, not some weird sexual joke.)

The core identity