Masks

I like a series of books by Sarah M Eden. Each book is about a different brother. In one of the books the mother of all these boys says to one of them "You all keep yourselves tucked safely behind various masks and walls, whether it be isolation or playing the fool or clinging to the appearance of impeccable respectability."
One of the reasons I like the series is because each book is about one of the brothers being brave enough to reveal themselves, to come out from behind the mask or wall they hide behind. And they each do it in a slightly different way because their mask was different to begin with.
This week I submitted my book Legend Speaker for possible publication (again). I wrote a cover letter for it that Jeremy kindly told me was boring... he was right and it forced me to confront my own mask.
When introducing myself I immediately want to say something to portray myself as boring as possible. Like telling people an interesting fact about me is that I have brown hair or I like to dig holes. When writing emails or cover letters or resumes I hide behind stiff formality. At first I told Jeremy it was because I hate talking myself up, which is true, to an extent.... but why do I hate talking myself up? Is it really because I hate bragging... or is it more about revealing myself, being vulnerable, showing excitement...
I was able to rewrite it in a way that wasn't boastful but it did show my excitement about what I've done, and yes it was a lot less formal.
I have been surprised at how much marriage reveals masks.... its been good but a bit uncomfortable.

Using Words with Power

Jeremy says I over analyze words....
The other week at church people were asked to describe attributes of God and some of the words that came up were Omnipresent, and Omniscient etc. Which are true and everything but it doesn’t really mean anything to me personally.
I think language is a super powerful tool, but we often don’t use it to its full advantage. I think one of the most annoying ways we don’t use it properly is when we say things that don’t even mean anything to us. We have all these big words that we throw around but sometimes they don’t represent any better what we meant then a simple word. That isn't always the case of course. People make fun of scientific papers for being overly dense, and they probably are but sometimes a really complicated word is so specific that using it can be far more succinct and clear then a lot of more ordinary words.