Sibley sort of got on my case yesterday about me being self-deprecating. I felt like she wasn't harrying me as much as she was the general practice of self-deprecation but still, it made me think. I've never really thought of myself as self-deprecative, or, if I were to concede that I am, I've never considered it to be a bad thing. I'd say I've looked at it as being aware of myself and my abilities and limitations. I'm freely ready to admit the things that I'm not good at and I'm very able to have a sense of humor about those things. That, I think, is what you could look at and see as self-deprecation. So, am I disparaging myself by doing this? I don't know, maybe. Again, I've never really looked at it like that and, after thinking about it, I'd argue that what I'm really doing is giving myself both leeway and explanation for failure, which really isn't healthy either. In that case what I'm basically saying to myself is, "Self, you're probably going to fail at this. It's Ok, and here's why:" Not exactly a recipe for success. So, if I am self-deprecating, which I might argue the exact terminology but I don't think I'd argue against the pattern of behavior that Sibley was alluding to, I'm either hurting myself by my own diminishment or limiting myself by the passive allowance of expected failure. Man, I'm a mess. Irony alert.