It took me 15 goes before I 'selfied' anything I could look at without internally sobbing . . . my Hollywood ego continues to reign supreme! I've spent decades striving to become a more balanced and compassionate person but vanity still has a stranglehold on me. If I can't be accepting of myself, then how can I truly be of others? Although age has given me a philosophical mentality, it's not always helpful. Looking casually at this photo (never!), I see less of my mother's side of the family and more of my father's. That wasn't so when I was younger. Dad was an unreconstructed man born and raised in the 20s and 30s, very funny and often very inappropriate. His view of women and their supposed role in his life would be considered, by current standards, a step before caveman. Over the years, I've come to recognise many of these observed attitudes and behaviours in myself and shifted them to quite a degree but, as the venerable saying goes: "You can't polish a turd." Just saying that underneath my 'new self', my 'old self' still grabs opportunities to say "Hi! Remember me?" My answer to this is to spend as much time as I can being creative - keeps me out of trouble. Wisdom hasn't necessarily come with age, just experience and a good beard. Although I'm fairly sure I'm not the only man in the house to 'fess up to some level of pre 'me too' attitudes and behaviour in their lives, I'm glad things are changing for the better in that respect. As the great mexican saying goes: "No sabe tanto el Diablo, es lo tanto que ha vivido!" (The Devil's not so smart, just lived a long time!". Not entirely sure why I followed this particular train of thought today but there you go. If you can make the time, please check out my YouTube music videos for the All Along the Borderland project, I'm quite proud of them! https://www.youtube.com/user/davidclarkallen