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Beth Adams's avatar

I was looking for the "perfection" post and came here instead, so I re-read it and appreciated much of what you say here. The Tillich quotes are especially good. I understand and have been in the position of being unaccepted by others when I stopped playing a particular role they had come to expect.

We all need to figure out where the "authority" for our lives needs to come from - what is authentic, what is truly ourselves and the living out of who we are meant to be? It can be very complicated when one is in longterm relationships with expectations, manipulations, and guilt -- as well as love, which makes us not want to disappoint the others who we care for deeply.

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William Green's avatar

Thank you for this. Bringing in Tillich adds weight, explaining why certain forms of “innocence” remain so durable: one involves risk; the other, safety—echoing in political life: staying quiet can be mistaken for moral clarity, and doing the expected passes for doing what’s right.

You bring to mind Graham Greene. Using the language of his day: “Innocence always calls mutely for protection when we would be so much wiser to guard ourselves against it: innocence is like a dumb leper who has lost his bell, wandering the world, meaning no harm.” —The Quiet American.

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