Showing posts with label shyness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shyness. Show all posts

27 May 2014

In Praise of Shyness



It's wrong to always identify shyness negatively as a form of social anxiety or awkwardness due to low self-esteem, or some other psychological failing.

In fact, I tend to agree with the poet and philosopher Simon Thomas who writes that there is nothing more seductive than a certain reticence in the object of one's desire and that - at its most adorable - the trait of shyness can be characterized as a withholding of luminosity, i.e. that which radiates like a tiny star within the body of the beloved and makes such a dazzling impression (causing blindness and preventing speech).   

Besides, what's the alternative? The super-confident, self-assertive types who have shamelessly forgotten how to blush and never know when to lower their eyes or keep their big mouths closed? 

No thanks. For me, the bold are very rarely beautiful ...