Wendy K. Laidlaw

Because

The personal story, the genuine personal story, will usually have two main elements that are trying to get recognized.

And one I call the genius, the gifted self, and the other is the wounded self.

Carl Jung, the famous psychologist, once wrote, I think he wrote it, genius hides behind the wound.

And remember I said that the genius wants a blessing.

And the French word, the blessing comes from the French blessure.

And the word blessure means wound.

The blessing not only confirms the gifts, it confirms the wounds.

And so the first, you know, so that a person needs to deal with both.

When I'm afraid to go inside myself, I'm afraid of two things, really.

I'm afraid there's something in there meaningful and bigger than I'm ready for.

And I'm afraid I'm going to have to go near those wounds that I got early in life.

And I'm sorry to say, in general terms, everyone's gifted and everyone's wounded.

That's the story.

And so when a person becomes celebrated, we call it celebrity now, celebrated, it's usually for their gifts.

But when they are celebrated in public and they are raised in terms of everybody begins to see them as a star,

Well, a star is a bright thing surrounded by darkness.

And as a person gets elevated, the gift gets more profound.

And it's usually associated with gold, like you get a gold record or you get the gold statue for the Emmys or the Grammys or whatever it is.

And as that's getting bigger, the wound is getting bigger too.