Turtles and Bagpipes!

Most of us have a private side that we share with almost no one and there is a reason for that. People can be very judgmental and in today's world it is more common to say the sarcastic, or mean thing, than the caring or compassionate one.

Often thought of as sophistication, those trite little comments that light up tweets and hip situations are not as difficult to come up with as they may seem. Once you get into the groove, finding faults and highlighting them in other people gets easier and easier. It is so easy to laugh at "them," whoever "they" are.

Laughing at ourselves is an entirely different game. We generally pick those things we know we really have in common with other people, because then there is a sort of camaraderie in laughing at ourselves. We're still playing it safe, just perhaps being a little kinder (of course it does include ourselves so that isn't all that surprising.)

There is no safety shield anymore. Anyone in a position of authority, or in the public eye is open to the lowest sort of unthinking criticism. It is so easy to pick the bones clean.

The real art is in building up the man or woman so that they become confident caring contributors to this world.

But I digress. Not sharing my private side keeps me safe, but sometimes it keeps me from finding like souls who might enrich my life to the nth degree. I suppose that is where today's ability to meet people anonymously in the beginning has a purpose. I can share my love of turtles, or the Highlander series without watching them fall on the floor cackling with glee! Eventually, if I am true to myself, I will find another turtle lover and maybe even someone else who loves the bagpipes.

And in the process we build each other up with our caring and contributing.