The word gets thrown out a lot, and probably means different things almost every time, so I may as well add my definition.
To me, it's about being true to yourself. It's the antonym of hypocrisy.
And it's really hard.
It's hard because there are so many pressures and forces trying to shape us into their mold: other peoples demands, expectations, and imaginations, a whole slough of rules and regulations, traditions and social mores, and our own notions of what we are supposed to be and do.
And some of them seem good--like what we're supposed to do, supposed to be. And some of the people are really important to us. And we so want to be accepted and important to others.
And the path of least resistance is to take on the shape they want us to.
And maybe this is OK sometimes.
But I think it's usually just painful. It usually just holds us down--makes us into something we really don't want to be, a shape we really just don't fit.
In a previous post, I decided this was a worthy goal: A better match, a better fit between the world and us.
Here, I'll make it a bit more personal: A better fit between me and what I really am.
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