At Stanford University there is a psychologist named Festinger who has a theory which he calls “cognitive dissonance.’ If you teach at a university like Stanford, you are supposed to use big words like that. As strange and new as it may sound, it’s very simple. It means that there is a big gap between my ideals and my actions, what I believe and what I do, my goals and my deeds. There is a difference between the image I have of myself and the image I try to project for other people and that discrepancy is “cognitive dissonance.” Festinger says that the tension that results from this is the cause of much of our physical and emotional suffering. And all of us know that kind of suffering to some degree pretending to be perfect when we are really imperfect; projecting an image of success when …