No wonder some of us feel a little guilty admitting that we never miss an episode.
And admitting that we don't know the answer can make us feel unmoored.
It would help if we started by admitting that we don't really know.
Admitting that we are experiencing envy can be very threatening, because it means acknowledging our own weakness and insecurity.
But admitting that we have failed, and that a simple return is not possible, need not plunge us into despondency.
We hate ourselves for admitting that we actually kind of like it, for all the twangy-hooked, early 2000s nostalgia it brings us.
We share something — an opportunity or in some cases, a problem — and admitting that we are different and embracing it is part of the solution.
There is a virtue sometimes in admitting that we are not really there, in leaving the descriptive flourish aside and letting expository prose do the hard work.
Goldman Sachs's Lloyd Blankfein caught his fellow titans by surprise in November, admitting that "we participated in things that were clearly wrong and have reason to regret".
"This is a contest of wills," Petraeus observed about the U.S.-Taliban nine-year standoff, freely admitting that we are stuck there "for quite some time".
Ms. Ryan wears her influences lightly but openly, admitting that "we are beholden/to the sources we crib —/always something's overflow,/or someone's rib hidden in our breast".
