tjames- I love it! dialyn- Agree and disagree. I think most of us would agree that through our writing we are able to express things about who we really are that many of those who have never read our writings could never guess at. And that "interior us" is in many ways more real and eternal than the "exterior us." Yet how much of who we appear to be in this forum is pretense and masquerade? It is so easy to hide behind the anonymity an electronic forum provides. Maybe I'm really a woman in Burkina Faso, or a lizard, or a computer program, that gets kicks out of convincing people of things that aren't true? On the other hand, maybe that isn't important. Maybe what my exterior is doesn't matter, and I should only be judged by the content of my soul as expressed in my communications with others. On the gripping hand, can I really know more about a real person by reading their communiques in a forum than by having human contact with them every day? Can I know my wife or students better through a letter or a story than I can by being present day after day? I would hope not, but maybe so... Is a split personality a convincingly human trait?