Coats and Hats and Being Your True Self

"...the world sets in to making us what the world would like us to be, and because we have to survive after all, we try to make ourselves into something that we hope the world will like better than it apparently did the selves we originally were. That is the story of all our lives, needless to say, and in the process of living out that story, the original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us hardly end up living out of it at all. Instead, we live out all the other selves which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather." (emphasis added by me) - Frederick Buechner

I read this this morning and it wrung sadly true. I wish I could say I was living out the phrase, "Let people feel the weight of who you are, and let them deal with it." Unfortunately, I know I'm not. There's something strange and sinister at work in this world, that makes us hide from each other.

I'm just beginning to see and understand this in myself. It feels at times like a subconscious prison that I don't realize I'm in, but that completely keeps me from being free and fully alive. "Our original, shimmering self"... Do we really believe that who we are deep down is worth letting other people see? That they need who you really are, not who you think they need? That reminds me of another quote, "Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world truly needs is people who have come alive."

Expect another blog post about this soon...