self help...

In the course of trawling around the internets (I keep typing that "internests") I came across this book that I was intrigued to read called,

I Thought it was Just Me (but it isn't): Telling the Truth about Perfectionism, Inadequacy, and Power by Brene Brown.

Brene's a shame researcher, and I've just started picking away at the book. In the introduction she writes about how it's helpful to differentiate between embarrassment, guilt, humiliation, and shame.

I like semantics, so I am mulling over these definitions.

embarrassment is typically fleeting, often funny, and very normal (ie. these things happen to everyone).

guilt is what we feel when our behavior is inconsistent with who we want to be.

humiliation was summed up thusly -- whereas people believe they deserve their shame; they do not believe they deserve their humiliation. (Also, repeated humiliation can lead to shame.)

and shame -- if guilt is "I did something bad" then shame manifests as "I AM bad."

Something to think about and puzzle over whether I, like a lot of people, use these words interchangeably.

tw drabble "gluttony"

(I sort of fell off the 7 Deadly Sins wagon... but I had a brainstorm and this is what emerged)

There’s hungry, and then there’s hunger. A kid who’s grown up on the dole, a teenager scraping by as best he can on his own, a refugee from terror. Take him up, give him the things he’s never had. Ready money. Abundance. The company credit card. So when his job is buying the food, his secret pleasure is buying the best of the best. Even cannibals can’t stop him from hungering after the finest cut of steak. It’s not compensation, but when there are no limits, the heart dares to dream, and his dreams are ripe, and he is replete.