Thanks as always for your thoughts. We are so run by our subconscious mind that I think the only way to change things is to make them conscious so we can work with them. One of my absolutely favorite quotes related to all of this is from a book I read about dismantling patriarchal ways of doing thing at work.

"It is not that we have created the patriarchy around us. Or the working conditions, or even the dominant culture. What we have done is colluded with it. We cannot mature inside a culture without having internalized aspects of it. Our ability to change our political environment begins with the understanding of how we have helped create it. Our consciousness is where the revolution begins. Fifty percent of the work we need to do is on ourselves. The other 50 percent is to focus outward and use ideas like stewardship to redesign the practices, policies, and structures that institutionalize what we wish to become."

Block, Peter. Stewardship: Choosing Service Over Self-Interest (p. 50). Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Kindle Edition.

I'm not 100% free of my programming, but I do compare myself to other people a whole lot less than I used to. I'm glad the Ford book came. She tells a lot of stories on herself, which makes it really accessible, or so I found. Keep me posted.

PS the facial hair suits you.