I read today on one of my favorite blogs a first person account of a terrible thing that the blogger had done. It was a beautiful entry. It called to mind the essay by Joan Didion, On Self-Respect, found in her book, "Slouching Towards Bethlehem." I'm sure I've written about it before. It pretty much changed my life. There I was, in a relationship that seriously didn't work for me, and what kept me there was the thought that if I left, it would mean I was a 'Bad Person.' I try so hard to be good, or, more accurately, to be thought of as good by others. Here's Joan on the issue: "The dismal fact is that self-respect has nothing to do with the approval of others-who are, after all, deceived easily enough; has nothing to do with reputation, which, as Rhett Butler told Scarlett O'Hara, is something people with courage can do without."

Buy that book. You can get it for $10.40 from Amazon.com. It gets my vote for one of the most brilliant things ever written in English.

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