I'm All For Having A Healthy...

...self-esteem. Until you make it sacrosanct. Then I'm coming in for the kill. Which is why I've had a few drinks poured in my lap and a face-slap or two.

I don't mind if you think highly of yourself. It's natural and keeps your ass psychologically healthy. But when you start to throw it up as a dictum wherein nobody can get close to you, even in an indirect way, then I have a tendency to question you incessantly. Because I want to make sure you know what kind of barrier you are setting up. And it ain't pretty. I've heard or had three consistent things happen in my life when talking to people that have this persistent, overblown perception of themselves.

• "You're making me think too much." Ahh, yeah. That's the point. If you have set up these standards for yourself and think they are non-negotiable, then why would my questioning them make you think about them?
  
  
• "You are trying, in a pushy way, to tell me what to think." No I'm not. I'm trying to get you to think as a human being, not a robot. You've developed these rules to protect you from past experiences. From which you will not waiver. But when you come back with that line, it means I've gotten you to think that at least you could tolerate something other than complete compliance. True humanity requires spontaneity. In thought and deed.
  
  
• Drink in lap. Typical. No other recourse because they are so pissed that they knew they had no other defense other than to attack with a splash of scotch and water, or their beverage of choice. I've had them all.
  

A prig is a prig, whether it's in the religious sense or just in day-to-day living. Get over you're damned self. I can violate any intellectual construct you have set up if you've done so to set yourself up as superior to others. Try being humble for a change.