Well.  There used to be a song about it.   Free to be, you an me.  Marlo Thomas was the one who did the album project about this back in the 1970s.

Cat Stevens sang about it too.  “If you want to sing out, sing out.  And if you want to be free, be free.”

Here is my problem.  Can I remember who I was before the world told me who I should be?   Can you?

If only.

I think that is where we find a big part of our happiness.   When finally find out what we always already knew.  Who we really are deep down inside.  Who we truly want to be.  The trouble is… digging down to that old familiar spot… where the answer lies.

And. Back to my stumbler.  I don’t necessarily compare myself to anyone else, but I sure do care what people think of me.  Or… more to the point… what I THINK they might be THINKING of me.   I know I should stop worrying about  other people’s opinions.  Gosh dern it anyhow.

But I sure do give it a lot of weight…. even though intellectually, I know better.

It has been said that we can be whoever we want to be.  But sometimes, it seems like life circumstances get in the way of that.  I can only say, that I think it is important that we try to travel to that place. That space.  That time.

Shakespeare started this movement a long time ago.  To thine own self be true.  In today’s plain English…. Be true to yourself.  We are the only people in charge of our lives.  My life, is mine to live.  As is yours.  The only question is…… What do we want to do with the rest of it?

The measure of who we are is what we do with what we have.  —  Vince Lombardi
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The things that we love tell us what we are. —  Thomas Aquinas
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 Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.  —  Carl Sagan

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