Castles
It seems we spend a lot of our time and energy trying to be something else thinner, smarter, louder, more serious, more fun, quieter, less smart, bigger, richer... I'm all for self-improvement, but I'm not so sure the energy expenditure is always worth it.
Sometimes I think it's like we build castles. For some people their castle is their body. For a few days I spent some time with someone who had built a castle out of his mind. His body was being progressively affected by a disease, but he had so much to share from his mind. Because of that I miss him even though I knew him only for a few days. But the people I admire most of all are those who's castle is their soul. It's kinda of noticeable we're generally encouraged to build castles out of everything else first. Not just that we're somehow invalidated, made to feel less than, unless we meet some arbitrary, vaguely specified, un-meetable standard. Castle-building is great. Striving after those stupid-as standards isn't.