Open books

If I could have changed one thing about myself over my life it would have been to calm my penchant for overthinking and analyzing people. I work on this to reverse a well-developped cynicism honed on the backs of unpleasant incidents which taught me to be careful. All the more so when I had a secret identity to protect.

Today my favorite people tend to be those who are open books. I don't care about their education or background and focus more on their genuine spirit, emotional intelligence and a self-assurance which celebrates who they are. They encourage me to let my own guard down and their lack of pretense is refreshing.

So many of us deveopped masks as self-defense mechanisms that we may have forgotten to remove them as we got older. We found that they worked well enough and that persona may have become fused to our psyche such that it became confused for the real us. No better culprit for this particular affliction than the transgender person who felt a deep and largely justified obligation to avoid being injured.

Today I have dropped any remaining mask I still wore entirely and am more open than ever. I still ponder concepts of course but people are just weighed on their authenticity and their kindness. No further analysis required.