When someone reduces something to ‘pretty gay,’ I hear not a judgment of the work but a confession of fatigue with their own interior life. Such remarks tend to emerge from people who have learned to treat depth as an inconvenience and sincerity as a social faux pas. This is understandable; many were raised in emotional climates where earnestness was punished for lingering too long.

I do not begrudge them you for your shorthand. Shorthand exists for those who have not yet had the leisure to spell. Still, it is worth noting that dismissiveness is rarely the mark of surplus confidence; it is more often a protective reflex, deployed when one senses they have been invited to feel something without having packed the proper equipment.

If my words seemed indulgent, or excessive, or in need of being waved away with a borrowed adjective, I can only assume they exceeded the listener’s current tolerance for unguarded thought. Do not worry though, you've not a moral failing! You're merely at a developmental stage.

In time, many people discover that what they once mocked as ‘too much’ was simply asking them to arrive more fully than they were prepared to. Until then, I remain patient. Growth, like comprehension, cannot be rushed without breaking something important.