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They Put You on a Pedestal — To Push You Off
Keep your worship. I just want acceptance.
It makes me nervous when anyone praises me as a person based solely on my work. I credit the ex who told me that I’m better on paper for this particular insecurity. I don’t want to hear about how great I am. In my experience, the only people who put us on pedestals are the same ones destined to push us off.
It makes me think of a scene in the film The Philadelphia Story with Katherine Hepburn. The man she’s planning to marry tells her how she’s more goddess than human, and she’s not pleased. She doesn’t want to be some cold, unfeeling icon above the mess of humanity. She wants to be seen as fully flawed and human — a person with a heart that can be just as easily broken as anyone else’s. She doesn’t want to be worshipped — just understood.
The problem with people building us up in their heads is that we are not responsible for the conclusions they draw or assumptions they make. Yet, that’s the standard we are held to, often without knowing it. It doesn’t matter how forthright we are about our flaws. There are always going to be people who disregard them at the outset to keep their fantasies alive. But at some point, the illusion inevitably breaks, and we’re the ones blamed.
