I was listening to Whoopi Goldberg talk this morning, I only caught snippets but found her every bit as interesting as I might have expected. It turns out that she is a dyslexic, who hated school, and didn’t bother going once she was 13; she is however very bright.  The interesting thing that caught my attention was when she described herself as “Shy.”  On one hand, in her public persona, she is ballsy and ‘out there’; however, put her in a party or group situation and apparently she feels she has little to say and tends to go quiet.  I could relate to a lot of what she said, and despite being something of an extrovert, there is a shy me too.

In fact, I have come to believe that most of us have an inner version of us who is almost the very opposite of the face we show the world.  Now I think it is more complex than just saying we are the opposite of the person we appear to be; it is more a case of saying that we can be out-going AND shy, confident AND nervous.  If we treat others as they appear on the surface we are almost certainly missing something key to who they are. 

What is your experience and have you found a good way of dealing with this? 

“It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances. The true mystery of the world is the visible, not the invisible.”   Oscar Wilde

 “Judgements prevent us from seeing the good that lies beyond appearances.”  Wayne Dyer

Resources:

• Desert Island Disks – Whoopi Goldberg