From this, I can tell whether you are happy or unhappy-
how many complaints do you have each day?

Yes, I am your friend
          only insofar
          you don't impinge on my self-interest
           or step on my little toe.

'I thought you were my friend',  I said
    Reply:  '  Sorry,  I am not that person'

The truth will not set you free-
it will disgust you.

Pessimism, to me, is to be preferred to optimism.
I have planned my life based on this belief since my young days up to old age and have come to realise that what I am and the small measure of success I have been able to achieve has been due to this choice.
Pessimism is more close to the pulse of reality in the face of life's uncertainties and vicissitudes.

The pessimist plans well ahead and has a contingency plan but not the optimist who is left high and dry when his plans don't work out-
he has no resources to cope in these eventualities.
( I was happy to read, after my diary entry,  that a scientific study published in 2015 came to the same conclusion--the article was entitled
THE DOWN-SIDE OF OPTIMISM).

Being pessimistic hasn't dampened my love for living---the quality of my life has not changed--I am stronger and happier--thanks to my pessimism.

I know many would disagree---each unto thy own--whatever suits you, that you must espouse.

But what is perfection? Can something be perfected---a novel, a poem, a symphony, a play, a dance, a painting, an invention…?

It seems to me 'perfection' is not achievable but only looms as a benchmark against which we subjectively measure our works.

It is in the realisation that what we have done is imperfect that we strive for a higher achievement----

most of us do that but as for me I never ever dare to think that what I have done is good enough--- it is a just a step forward.

Not one
but a mask over a mask
over a mask
which hides some

and the wearers
feel safer
stronger
assume greater
control over themselves
'  I'm a face within a face
within a face
a phantom within a phantom
within a phantom

you can peel a layer away
but not all
and I remain
a shadow within a shadow
within a shadow

one moment you see me
and another moment
I'm no longer there
an apparition within an apparition
within an apparition

I'll cause you confusion within confusion
within confusion

I'm obscurity within obscurity
within obscurity*

I'm a person within a person
within a person'.