I Get A Lot Of Letters From

Theodor Geisel (otherwise Known As Dr. Seuss) Spent His Workdays Ensconced In His Private Studio, The Walls Lined With Sketches And Drawings, In A Bell-tower Outside His La Jolla, California, House. Geisel Was A Much More Quiet Man Than His Jocular Rhymes Suggest. He Rarely Ventured Out In Public To Meet His Young Readership, Fretting That Kids Would Expect A Merry, Outspoken, Cat In The Hat–like Figure, And Would Be Disappointed With His Reserved Personality. “in Mass, [children] Terrify Me,” He Admitted.

I Had Always Imagined Rosa Parks As A Stately Woman With A Bold Temperament, Someone Who Could Easily Stand Up To A Busload Of Glowering Passengers. But When She Died In 2005 At The Age Of Ninety-two, The Flood Of Obituaries Recalled Her As Soft-spoken, Sweet, And Small In Stature. They Said She Was "timid And Shy" But Had "the Courage Of A Lion." They Were Full Of Phrases Like "radical Humility" And "quiet Fortitude.

All Personality Traits Have Their Good Side And Their Bad Side. But For A Long Time, We've Seen Introversion Only Through Its Negative Side And Extroversion Mostly Through Its Positive Side.

Introversion- Along With Its Cousins Sensitivity, Seriousness, And Shyness- Is Now A Second-class Personality Trait, Somewhere Between A Disappointment And A Pathology. Introverts Living In The Extrovert Ideal Are Like Women In A Man's World, Discounted Because Of A Trait That Goes To The Core Of Who They Are. Extroversion Is An Enormously Appealing Personality Style, But We've Turned It Into An Oppressive Standard To Which Most Of Us Feel We Must Conform.

The Pressure To Entertain, To Sell Ourselves, And Never To Be Visibly Anxious Keeps Ratcheting Up.