In this month's New Jersey Monthly, there's a profile of Rabbi Dresner, one of the original freedom riders from the civil rights movement of the turbulent 1960's.
Besides this man's bravery, one quote really stood out. He reminisced about his meetings with Dr. Martin Luther King. He stated,"not all great people are nice privately. Many are arrogant. Dr. King was never that way".
That got my attention. Are most great public figures not so nice in private? If so, what's the price on one's psyche to carry around a facade? To have such incongruity and disparity between what one is projecting when it's at contradiction with one's inner feelings? Is it virtually impossible to have the same private persona as public one because of undue pressure and expectation?
I'm still digesting this. But I'm glad I can walk down the street in relative obscurity.
Andrew Chaplowitz gives his observation about human nature.
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