The Desire for Acceptance

Analysis.

Everyone does it to a point, whether it involves looking deeper into a stratagem, or theory, or even peering into the personality and character of an individual. Often when it's the latter, there is a great deal of exposure and vulnerability that comes alongside, no matter if it is you or someone else who is being preyed upon by another's judgment and scrutiny.

But to what extent must we chase after these brutal, honest, and sometimes very harsh observations despite causing one obvious discomfort?

The last three days have provided two very different sides of analysis: both the kindly, honest vulnerability that is offered willingly (and yet sometimes apprehensively) to another, as well as the jarring and revealing (supposed) truth that is forced into a person's lap.

The painful option is always the difficult one to swallow. That instance where you sit before someone who points out character flaws, who indicates issues where you struggle, and appears to care little for your emotional state. Once they take your character, rip it out of your being, and serve it back to you all shredded underneath a cloche, there seems a stark reality that is brought to your attention. The dome is lifted to reveal a plate of something that was once moderately understood and put together, but as the belief about this character is pointed out, there is no returning to the state of once blissful ignorance. That individual may not understand the implications of this analysis, of this deep and penetrating study. That individual may try to figure out one's character and do so to a degree that the uncovered imperfections that are inevitably present mar their perspective. The difference then, is to point out these observations with love, with kindly and growth-worthy criticism instead of as if it were attached with malice.

Then there is the peaceful and slightly timid offering of analysis. Giving the perspective that you have drawn of yourself to another with the intention of a deeper understanding. You hope that they will look at the flaws not with expressions of revolted distaste, but rather with an understanding that it is you, as a human, who is providing insight into the issues and victories that have been etched into your fabric as if with a charcoal pencil. Looking past these bumps in the road can either be tremendously difficult or blissfully easy, usually a combination of the both. It is here, when you are able to shyly hold your person out in your hands that you realize the true fragility and meekness that comes along with being human.

But when that person takes your hands and holds you there, you understand that there is so much more to analysis than what the science types offer; there is the potential for fear yes, but there is also a great possibility for a sigh of calming relief.

While you've been scrutinized, here you have been accepted.