Carmen.

It's been a while since I dropped one of my philosophical musings here, they haven't been written down but have been crowding my head, so it's time to let one of them out…

Lately — living this new solo woman life — I've been wondering a lot about who I really am.

How much of the woman I’ve been was nurture — shaped by others — and how much was nature — mine alone?

That got me thinking about female archetypes.

The Madonnas. The Medeas. The Antigones. And even the modern Karens.

But what if I could add another one?

The Carmens.

What is a Carmen?

Inspired by Bizet’s Carmen — wild, free, untameable — but also by every woman I know who refuses to be possessed.

A Carmen lives by desire, instinct, impulse — not duty or expectation.

"Carmen was born free, and free she will die."

She doesn’t fit into the roles handed to her: not the lover, not the wife, not the victim.

She seduces not to belong — but to break the chains of nurture and to find herself.

She merges with others not to lose herself — but to find herself more fully.

She resists every definition — because the definition itself is a form of capture.

So maybe a Carmen is desire without domestication? Freedom without apology? Presence without belonging?

And yes — sometimes that means loneliness. Misunderstanding. Even tragedy and heartbreak for her and the ones she comes in contact with.

But never submission.

Here's to the Carmens out there and let's include this definition into our contemporary discourses.

Out with Karens, in with Carmens. ;-)

And I guess I would like to identify as one of them.

Wild, disruptive, vital, beautiful, doomed — but always free.