7 November 1997

This morning [my long-time friend] Michael said that back in our Hayes Street days (about 1983), I was "less present" than I am now.

I interpreted this to mean that back then I had less of a "personality" or "identity;" that I had not developed into my own person with interests and opinions, etc. Micheal says that this was only a piece of it; also that I am now much more accessable (interpersonally). That back then I was much more defensive and private (but he understands, given what I grew up with, how I would have developed into such a closed and private person).

Michael says that people need to earn their faces and bodies, that at some time they grow into them. Which reminds me of that quote from one of my favorite photographers, Henri Cartier-Bresson: "At some age, everyone gets the face they deserve."