Your Worst

"Be true! Be true! Be true! Show freely to the world, if not your worst, yet some trait whereby your worst may be inferred."

-- Nathaniel Hawthorne

My girlfriend has on numerous occasions complained, "Nobody else really knows you. You're always so nice to everybody else." Putting aside for a minute the veracity of her complaint, my response is usually something like, "Well, I'm just not big on thrusting my asshole at the camera!"

We all want to put our best foot forward. If we have a choice, we want the photo to show our best side, and definitely not our asshole. But assholes we all are. At least sometimes. I bet even old Mother Teresa could be a real stickler for details and drive some of the less anal nuns nuts at times.

Be that as it may, I like Nate's advice. To be really transparent, really authentic, really true, we must at least infer that we're not the second coming of Christ. And what better way to show our less stellar side than by flashing a little red eye every now and again?

So today, an assignment that many of you have been eagerly awaiting-- let your inner asshole shine! Don't try and hide the mole on your soul, the blemishes beneath your beauty, the pimples that adorn your platinum car (say, what?). Just for today, be true, be true, be true, even to the worst parts of you. See how it feels to hide nothing, to let go of your persona, to fart and belch your way through life instead of blaming the dog.

Kris Kristofferson told us that "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose," maybe it's also just another word for nothing left to hide.