I really like raw connections, and so I've always had a harder time in politics because I feel there's a lot of veneer around everything.
I think there is this steely strength beneath this beautiful veneer that a lot of women possess. I can't fathom or understand it.
Under the veneer of Westernization, the cultures of the Indian world - which have existed for 30,000 years! - continue to live. Sometimes in a magical way, sometimes in the shadows.
If the widespread attempts to block Brexit gave us a glimpse into how fragile our commitment to democracy had become - reduced to a technocratic in-name-only veneer - reactions to Covid are a stark reminder that freedom cannot be assumed as a social norm that's deeply embedded into our institutions and our psyche.
No one finds it interesting to look at the person who is perfect all the time. They have no flaws. Flaws are what open us up to another person to show that we are not having a veneer, a fake sort of exterior.
Black Lives Matter is proving itself to seek only one end - and that is discord, alienation among Americans, rise in hate, and destruction of community bonds. The relative increase in justice afforded black Americans is of little concern, save as a convenient veneer for their anti-democratic mission.
I love the nooks and crannies of the American landscape; the back roads and back alleys, the places that are still untouched by the corporate gloss, the veneer of sameness that seems to be spreading across the country.
If being open and honest with my customers is naive then it's fine with me. CEOs who hide behind that all-seeing, all-knowing veneer are playing a game anyway, it's not real. I am quite happy to be seen for who I am.
After all, we are not French and never can be, and any attempt to be so is to deny our inheritance and to try to impose upon ourselves a character that can be nothing but a veneer upon the surface.
Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.
