My Greatest Hit

The innate animal dignity of the creature leads us to fool people, particularly those who see themselves as clever and wise.  It runs deeper than the explicit intention to deceive, based on some motive and a greater scheme.  It's probably just something we do in the course of being human.

Lincoln is the classic example.  It was not his intention to come across as a bumpkin or a rube, but people, including political operators, saw him as such, as 'a baboon.'  He was who he was, in no need of change of manner.  Anyone exploring the matter would quickly see he was well-spoken and articulate, a writer of clarity and intellect.

And Hamlet, Shakespeare's great exploration of inner landscapes, too.   He cannot help himself from putting on the play and the antic disposition.  It's who he is, not so much the carefully considered choice it might be made out to be, as we interpret the play.  He has no choice.  It has to do with the fiber of his morality, of defining right from wrong.

Perhaps we're all too good at it sometimes.  And so too, we're too good at buying into face value, missing the subtlety, the wit and the humor and the deeper sensitivity that lets us appear flawed without being ashamed of it.