If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin' at all.

Always did love Thumper.

I'm not bad at that - saying nothing when I can't think of something nice to say.

EXCEPT TO MYSELF.

That principle should surely apply when you’re talking to yourself, even inside your head?

I don't know if it's the British in me but somehow self-love seems so arrogant...

Yesterday, I read the whole of Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? and Jeanette Winterson explained the dichotomy better than I ever could - so here it is:

"...as I try to understand how life works - and why some people cope better than others with adversity - I come back to something to do with saying yes to life, which is love of life, however inadequate, and love for the self, however found. Not in the me-first way that is the opposite of life and love, but with a salmon-like determination to swim upstream, however choppy upstream is, because this is your stream..."

Yeah, Jeanette!