FINDING APPROVAL

There is no such thing as an autocratic individual, totally independent of the surrounding world and its recognition … Striving to find approval in the eyes of others, being noticed and not being dismissed as nothing by others demonstrates that I cannot relate to myself without relating to the world … I constantly vacillate, even to the very end of life, between the judgment others make about me and my own judgment of myself [and so] I am constantly trying to ascertain others’ judgment about me [so that I can make] my own judgment of myself …

OSWALD BAYER, LIVING BY FAITH