Vulnerability is lauded as a superhuman skill.

Vulnerability is lauded as a superhuman skill, a skill which each and everyone of us can potentially grow and harvest within ourselves. Why is it important in a semi-permiable membrane (our bodies) to be semipermiable, to actually be able to put ourselves in another's proverbial and actual shoes?

I believe the fate of our species depends on this ability, the concept makes itself known in many spiritual traditions from the Buddhists - Metta - meaning loving kindness, to the biblical charge... love thy neighbor as thyself. It is not hard to understand why once the shoes your wearing are someone else's.

A story, to illustrate my point from a personal perspective. I was in the airport in Austin, going to fetch my luggage in a steep crowd mountain of people flocking for their possessions, I grabbed a bag that was not mine, it was it's doppellgangers, a women in tall high heels and a tight miniskirt, with the eyes of an enraged creature, snatched the bag out of my hands and scolded me in a verbose tone. For a moment my heart broke for her, for how much wrath was being projected at a "stranger" for an innocent mistake. I allowed myself to be in her huffing, puffing, I'm going to blow your f***ing house down shoes. Then I came back into the lining of my own skin, feeling the rush of blood in the veins, and the hot blush of fresh tears, that filled the creek of my face during this flash flood. I once again chose, to not be in the victim, victimizer, savior trinity, rather to immerse myself in the intelligence of kind acceptance in the face of meanness. This is a skillset, that my life circumstances have had me cultivate time and again.

Physiologically, I have a strong body odor, when I am nervous, excited, elated, cramped, wearing too many layers, or a number of other reasons ... some which I can measurably point to, others which baffle me considerably. It often gets me in trouble in civilization, in the world of perfume and chemically altered smells, my fragrant ardor has gotten me kicked out of classrooms with the advice to shave my armpits, as well as thrown off a Southwest flight, my family of origin often finds it offensive... and yet
I love that my body reeks of a medley of organic spices whether I shower or not.
As a result of this condition, I have given myself permission to embrace my wilds and not take out the tree line to have a more socially coveted view.