Do You Believe In Yourself?

Does your deepest sense of personal identity match your intents? Deep down, do you believe that the natural expression of your being will bring you the joy you desire, allow you to contribute as you wish?

If not…you have to either change your sense of identity, or change your goals, because otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure. Tananarive and I are watching the complete run of Columbo episodes, and we’re now in the run of TV movies made in the late 80’s and 90’s, the point at which they’d apparently forgotten how important the guest stars were, and were no longer casting instantly recognizable names, often playing against type (Dick Van Dyke as a ruthless killer!).

From one perspective, Colombo is actually a psychic, almost instantly resonating with the vibration of a killer, homing in on them, with instinct unerring and logic struggling to catch up with what he understood from the first meeting: this person was NOT what they presented to the world.

We just saw one where a famous artist killed his former agent, and years later, his ex-wife who was about to spill the beans. His external image is of a womanizing, hyper-successful, temperamental artist. But under that is the cunning predator Columbo sensed from their first meeting, and the only question we have is: “How will Columbo force the `real’ killer into the open?”

We all know his schtick: pretending to be slow, stupid and forgetful. Being ingratiating and humble. Bumbling into the target’s professional circle, learning…