An open book.

I wrote this to my friend and confidante Miss Gibson, who recently returned to London though she visited me about a month ago. Miss Gibson wrote me that she had a problem with self-esteem.

I wrote her this. I think I should keep it around, for it would be useful for me to be reminded of this sometimes, too.

Miss Gibson,

You're one of the most charming, intelligent people that I've ever had the pleasure to know, and I've now had the pleasure of knowing you for nearly 10 years. (Oh my God, has it been that long?)

You're beautiful. You've always been beautiful. You're fun. You've always been fun. And you're intelligent.

But you need to understand something that I'm starting to understand. The most important, attractive thing about you is that you're interesting. It's my best aspect, too.

It's the thing that, after 10 years, means that we'lll still always have something to talk about. It's the thing that keeps people around you. It's the thing that makes you a good friend, a good date, a good worker - and those friendships, dates and jobs only fuel you to make you more interesting. It's cyclical.

As a journalist, you know there's nothing worse than a slow news day. You know that there's something profoundly disturbing about a blank page.

Blank-page people are the worst kind of people, I think. I take my life and, literally and figuratively, write stories and plots and twists and jokes all over it. Good ones. Bad ones. I'm multi-faceted, vulnerable and verbal.

On my evening with Jason the Real Estate Masseuse, he noticed I seemed a little tense. He asked what could make me that tense, and I said to him, "My life is like a big open book, and you've barely begun to read the first chapter."

What will keep me forever with you, what will keep those worthy from never dismissing you off-handedly is that there's always more to read within you.

Anyone lucky enough to notice that you're worth far more than a passing glance, anyone who talks to you and realizes you're wacky and flawed and funny and cute, will realize that they've managed to come into contact with the human equivalent of a page-turner, one you never want to put down.

Never tell me that you think a worthy catch would actually dismiss you without taking the time to regard you as you deserve. Anyone who does dismiss you so flippantly is not a worthy catch.

Benj