A merchant dressed his donkey in a tiger skin and sent him to graze in farmers' fields — all too afraid to chase away a "tiger." The scheme worked until one night the donkey heard a female donkey braying and couldn't resist. He brayed back. The farmers, recognising the sound, beat him severely.
Borrowed authority is not identity. Under emotional pressure, the authentic self emerges — and when it does, the gap between costume and character becomes visible to everyone simultaneously.
Where are you maintaining an authority or image that requires suppressing your actual nature? What is the ongoing cost of that suppression?
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