A handful of related things:

1)"That's because I'm an actor, Stanley."

2)



3)
Walking at the Land Trust with Krys, mentioning the above comic.
"And why should it?" she says, smiling and admiring the stamens around us.
And in the depths of my skull, something goes *ding*.
Why should it?
Why should any of us?

4)
Met someone at one of Nate's shindigs who's like a fierce little force of nature. I'm pretty sure there's a spot in the middle of her storm where she's vulnerable, unsure, worried, human. But unless putting up a bold, hard face is how that spot presents, she doesn't seem to let it drive. She knows her talents, knows her strengths, knows the roads she's had to walk to get where she is, and will tell these things to anyone who will sit still and pay attention. And if you won't sit still and pay attention, fuck you. Life's too short to spend it gathering every single person's good opinion.

It's.
I'm at once bemused, intimidated, challenged, and inspired by that.

I don't know her well enough to know what's immodest honesty and what's utter bullshit.
But I've noticed that I slip into a Bear kind of headspace when I'm around her--feet planted, quietly receptive, accepting whatever face anyone shows, but not giving an inch of the ground of my emotional/personal integrity.
I don't aim to please.
I don't say pretty, meaningless things for the sake of "fitting in".
But I pay attention.
I appreciate beauty when/where I find it.
And I can be relied on.

I know where my skin is.

For that if nothing else, I count meeting her as my good fortune.
Her good fortune, too, maybe; who knows how she sees it.