hth | low self-esteem? buck up with John!

Just the other day,

julad and I were talking about the strangeness of being inherently non-emotive introverts who, as our hobby, write sappy love stories. No, I'm serious! For me, the stuff I write is, like, *syrup coated.* It's sap straight from the dorky bleeding-heart tree! Because what you have to know is, I'm pretty much a thoroughbred midwestern German Protestant, and we *do not talk about shit.* Key word, "talk." We're not as repressed as you might have heard; we're not about keeping secrets. No, we want you to know how we feel, and we have a complex language of backhanded compliments, stealth insults, tone of voice, passive aggression, etc etc to let you know whether we're royally pissed off or, alternately, couldn't possibly live without you. But just *saying* it out loud, in so many words is, you know. Embarrassing.

And some of that I guess comes through in my writing; I've been told I have a "distant" style, which amuses me, because by my sandards, I already mentioned -- sap! But I do tend to structure the emotional high points in non-verbal ways, partially because it's easier to come up with new and interesting ways to do the love thing if you avoid the obvious route, and partially because it's just my native language.

All of this is to say -- the John Sheppard Things We Don't Talk or Hug About meme is wicked cool. Go forth, and get in touch with your inner Lutheran! Tell someone you love that they're pretty all right.