Older, but no wiser

Please excuse a moment's self-indulgent thinking out loud:

I think I might take down that self-portrait photo in the sidebar. I put it there a few weeks ago because I felt like being seen, stepping a little further out of the shadows, and to do that seemed like progress. I also thought it reflected a tendency towards becoming more integrated, less of a split Jekyll and Hyde persona.

But it also represents the conventional me, the me that everyone else sees, and all the self-limiting beliefs that are wrapped up in that representation. I'd like the freedom to move outside that particular box. Yeah, I know, I have that freedom anyway; all the same… I see that face with it's inscrutable half-smile gazing back at me and it sets an expectation, based on the things those eyes have seen, the words that mouth has spoken, and most especially all the rules and commands those ears have heard.

Maybe it'll stay, maybe it wont… But if you see it go, now you'll know the reason why.