DONT just be yourself

‘‘... and you, Marcus, you have given me many things; now I shall give you this good
advice. Be many people. Give up the game of being always Marcus Cocoza. You
have worried too much about Marcus Cocoza, so that you have been really his slave
and prisoner. You have not done anything without first considering how it would
affect Marcus Cocoza’s happiness and prestige. You were always much afraid that
Marcus might do a stupid thing, or be bored. What would it really have mattered? All
over the world people are doing stupid things ... I should like you to be easy, your little
heart to be light again. You must from now, be more than one, many people, as
many as you can think of ...’’

– Karen Blixen
(‘‘The Dreamers’’ from ‘‘Seven Gothic Tales’’ written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesen, Random House, Inc. Copyright, Isac Dinesen, 1934 renewed 1961)