Why We All Need Archetypes and...Dan.

How to become more feminine is obvious is some ways but not in others. I live in Manhattan, and the other day I passed a man, dressed up for work in a women’s pantsuit and heels. He looked as though he had not been trying to dress like a woman for very long, there was a lot of feminine grace to be wanting. I’ve heard that some people hire a specialist for hundreds of dollars an hour, to teach them how to appear to be more like the opposite gender. Sometimes I feel like that man I passed on the street. Sometimes I feel unfashionable when I am comfortable, and awkward when I try to dress up. I still don’t have a black clutch and so I carry my keys to black tie events. I don’t have a cute sneeze, and no one would hire me to teach them how to stand, or walk, or laugh like a woman. How much more so issues of the soul and spirit. Women need an image to aspire to, a character in a story that we could be so familiarized with, that we could just think of what they would do in our place and then know for ourselves.
I have a friend named Dan who is the most loyal and wonderful ally. He is Sam from the Lord of the Rings. He waits in Matt’s basement for us when we’re coming into town, and never really leaves. He buys things when he’s out that made him think of me. He is fiercely devoted to Matt, Miranda, and I, and is sometimes more offended than we are when we are wronged. When someone I love is in crisis, and I don’t have time to think of principles, I am empowered to give them the encouragement they need to bear them up if I can think of what Dan would do if I were them, and he was me. Sometimes a scene in a story can bring truth to the present situation when you haven’t been faithful to prepare for crisis. We all need examples.