Beneath the diffidence there is certainty, the assurance of self-authentication, confidence in the solidity of the foundations at least, if not of everything that is built upon them. But beneath that certainty there is a deeper layer of doubt, this time with no bottom in view at all. You don't know the first thing... all of this has no foundation, no core. The only thing that self-validates is the need for appearing to know, which is consistent but weightless - blown away in the next strong wind. In the same way you can say that beneath the gruffness, the nit-picking mind, there is kindliness, compassion, love; beneath withdrawal a sense of solidarity. But beneath that sense of unity and fellow feeling there is a deeper isolation, a generalised ill-will, the obverse of generalised compassion, and an indispensible component in the constitution of the world. How much of art is there in rationalsing this malice into its negative? Not so fast, it takes a considerable feel for reality to dwell here with no movement of judgement or interpretation. As if you are poised on the boundary of the black and white, or the red and the blue.