When I think of supreme confidence without pride I think of such people as Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, or Robert Kennedy. I'm sure that the typical schoolteacher often wonders why some of their young students bask in self-confidence while others cringe at the very thought of self-affirmation. I think the average person gains in self-confidence with advancing years. They become comfortable with themselves knowing better their strengths and weaknesses and, while accepting their original callow premise of inadequacy, they now fully appreciate that so is everyone else--everyone without exception is familiar with feelings of inadequacy and everyone makes blunders and mistakes; no one is different even should they live in palaces. They have learned to value others despite their limitations and not infrequently, paradoxically, because of them. They have learned, in other words, the hard lesson that imperfection can be downright endearing as it fully serves to encompass the circle of our shared humanity.
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