Picture two glasses of water. One has had nothing added. The other has been coloured, sweetened and labelled. The old word for the first is pure: nothing hidden, nothing added. Said of a person, this course calls it plain. It does not mean good; it means the shown self and the lived self are the same one.
Gap: zero→No pile→No drift→A true record
Put the last three lessons together. A shown self is a pile of promises. It drifts toward what the crowd pays. Recorded, it promises for ever. Now set the gap to zero. The pile is empty, there is nothing to drift, and a recording is simply a true picture of a night.
Burnt edgeas cooked
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Restaurant dinnercalled home cooking
A person posts the dinner they actually cooked, including the burnt edge. A friend posts a dinner from a restaurant and calls it home cooking. Which of the two has more to keep up?
The friend. The post is a promise that has to be kept matching every later one.
Right. The burnt edge needs nothing; it already matches the lived self. The restaurant dinner now has to agree with every future claim about cooking.
Neither. They are both just dinner photos.
Not yet. One has a gap and one does not. The gap is the whole cost, and only one of the two photos has it.
The one who posted the burnt edge, because it looks bad.
Not yet. Looking bad costs nothing to keep. A gap costs upkeep, and a true picture has no gap.
The story told to yourself
↓→
What you did
↓→
Explained away, daily
The gap can also be on the inside. A person can tell themselves a story that does not match what they do: that they are fine when they are not, that they will start tomorrow. That is a shown self with an audience of one, with the same upkeep: every day, facts to explain away.
Each card is a gap. Who is the audience: other people, or the person alone?
One card at a time. Tap the pile it belongs to.
Card 1 of 6
Deciding the saving is going well, without ever checking the balance
Posting the gym every day, and going twice a week
Believing the job is a short stop, in its sixth year
A perfect-home account with the mess cropped out of every photo
Deciding the exam went fine, and not opening the result
A profile still listing a hobby dropped two years ago
Deciding the saving is going well, without ever checking the balance → The person alone
Not yet. The person alone. Nobody else is being shown anything. The balance is never looked at, so the story is never tested.
Posting the gym every day, and going twice a week → Other people
Not yet. Other people. The daily post is for its readers, and the two visits are the lived self.
Believing the job is a short stop, in its sixth year → The person alone
Not yet. The person alone. The story is about the future, told to the person living it, and six years of facts disagree.
A perfect-home account with the mess cropped out of every photo → Other people
Not yet. Other people. The cropping is for the viewers. The mess is still in the room.
Deciding the exam went fine, and not opening the result → The person alone
Not yet. The person alone. The unopened result is the fact the story cannot survive, so it stays unopened.
A profile still listing a hobby dropped two years ago → Other people
Not yet. Other people. The profile shows something that is no longer there, to whoever reads it.
3Other people
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3The person alone
Right. Three each. The inner gap is the same machine as the outer one: a promise that has to be kept against the facts. The only difference is who is being shown.
Picture the daily upkeep of a gap. Move the size of the gap and watch how many of the day's twenty facts have to be explained away. Made up to show the shape.
Facts to explain away0 a day, made up
Facts that just match20 a day, made up
Size of the gap: None
No gap: all twenty facts simply match.
Facts to explain away2 a day, made up
Facts that just match18 a day, made up
Size of the gap: Small
A small gap: two facts a day need an excuse. Eighteen just fit.
Facts to explain away8 a day, made up
Facts that just match12 a day, made up
Size of the gap: Large
A large gap: eight facts a day need explaining away. Twelve just fit.
Facts to explain away20 a day, made up
Facts that just match0 a day, made up
Size of the gap: Everything
A total gap: every one of the twenty facts contradicts the story, every day.
How much does the daily bill grow from a small gap to a large one?
It stays about the same. Managing an image is the same job whatever the gap.
Not yet. The frames differ by six facts a day between small and large. Managing an image is exactly the bill, and it grows with the gap.
It doubles.
Not yet. Two facts a day to eight is four times, not two. The frames count every fact the story has to explain away.
Four times: two facts to eight.
Right. Two to eight, and twenty at a total gap. The bill grows with the gap, and only a gap of none has no bill at all.
Move the control.
Poorhas little
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Plainadds nothing
Plain is not the same as poor, and lesson 4 drew a line next to it: less that was forced, less that was chosen. A plain self can be rich in friends, skill and things; it simply shows what is there. Poor is having little. Plain is adding nothing to what you have. Both can look like less.
Tap the one of these three that is a sign of a gap, not of plainness.
Tap the part of the picture that answers it.
Says less than they know
++
Hides what they did
++
Owns little
Hides what they did
Right. Hiding is a gap: something the lived self did that the shown self must not show. It will need keeping.
Says less than they know
Not yet. Saying less is not hiding. A plain self can be quiet, and lesson 11 is about who a word is for.
Owns little
Not yet. That is poor, or chosen less from lesson 4. Neither is a gap, because nothing is being shown that is not there.
The websitesmiles, family
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The reviewslong hours, fear
A company's website shows smiling staff and the word family. Its reviews from staff describe long hours and fear. Using this lesson, what does the company have?
Good marketing. Every company shows its best side.
Not yet. The size of the gap is the point. A best side that matches the inside needs no defence. This one needs reviews explained away every day.
A poor reputation, which is bad luck.
Not yet. The reviews describe the lived self. Luck did not write them; the gap did, and closing it is the only thing that stops the bill.
A gap between its shown self and its lived one, with daily upkeep: every review is a fact the website has to live beside.
Right. The website is the shown self; the reviews are the lived one leaking out. The gap is the thing that costs.
Lesson complete
Plain means nothing hidden and nothing added; a self with no gap has nothing to keep up.