Reader question:

Please explain this sentence, with “bare your soul” in particular: Is this a good time to bare your soul to Him?

My comments:

“Him” refers to the Christian God in the third Person. Him, with a capitalized H.

The question asks: Is it a good time you make a confession and tell Him everything?

So that He forgives you for your sins and trespasses.

All your wrongdoing, in other words.

That’s the idea.

Okay. Now, let’s talk about the expression “bare your soul”.

“Soul” refers to a person’s spirit. Our soul takes residence deep in our heart. Hence, soul is synonymous with our heart and holds our innermost feelings and emotions. When we try to find out what we most want to do or be, for example, we do some soul-searching.

To “bare”, on the other hand, is to reveal. Bare as an adjective is used in everyday English. Do not walk around in your bare feet, for example, and that means you should not walk around wearing neither shoes nor socks.

Walking bare-footed, you show all of your feet, warts and all.

To “bare your soul”, therefore, is to open your heart and tell everything, holding back nothing. You leave everything about yourself in the open, including what you consider to be the most private and vulnerable, e.g. things you’ve never told anyone before.

Got it?

All right, no more ado, here are recent examples of people who “bare their soul” in various situations:

1. One of the Eric Cantona stories that sums up his unique place in pop culture came when he first arrived in England as a Leeds United player in 1992. He was asked in an interview who his hero was, and he said, “Rimbaud,” which was written up in the press as ‘Rambo’, leading to idiot Leeds fans (full disclosure, I’m a Hull City fan) holding up pictures of Sly Stallone gunning down Vietcong and chanting ‘Rambo, Rambo’ at matches.

Cantona subsequently signed for Alex Ferguson at Manchester United where he achieved great success as well as notoriety for kung-fu kicking an idiot Crystal Palace fan (no qualifier here, he just was). At a press conference following an appeal hearing about the kung-fu kick at a magistrates court, he said only this: “When the seagulls follow the trawler, it’s because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea.” Cue days of sport sections forgoing tactical analysis for dissections of imagery in surrealist poetry.

Yes, Cantona has always been an odd fit for football, at least English football, which of course is what made him such a memorable footballer. He was an oddity, mercurial, individual, his own man, who got away with his eccentricities in the pie-eating footie world because he was French. That explained everything as far as most English people were concerned, say no more.

As such, him moving into music is no great surprise – he’s already built a decent career in the arts in TV and films – it’s not as if Wayne Rooney has decided to bare his soul on a country-blues album. And indeed Cantona’s music is exactly as you’d expect it to be: sentimental Serge Gainsbourg-style chanteur-spoken ballads, with a bit of terrace rock thrown in.

Your tolerance for it will depend on your tolerance for both; personally, I have a fair bit of tolerance in these areas thanks to years of alcoholism, and found the four tracks on I’ll Make My Own Heaven perfectly acceptable. While it’s all terribly self-indulgent, there’s just a sense of giving people what they want, which is him doing him.

- Eric Cantona: I'll Make My Own Heaven EP review - mercurial footballer turns Gainsbourgh-style chanteur, by Martin Robinson, Standard.co.uk, October 21, 2023.

2. Justin Bieber’s fans have united in support of the pop sensation as he keeps his distance from the controversy involving Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.

Last week, Diddy was arrested in New York City and denied bail following accusations of sex trafficking, racketeering, and arranging for transportation for prostitution purposes. The music tycoon has strongly refuted all charges against him, with his attorney asserting his innocence.

As legal proceedings unfold, attention has shifted to Justin, 30, who was once mentored by Diddy. The father-of-one skyrocketed to fame as a teenager, experiencing instant success but also grappling with the pressures of stardom over time.

Vintage footage of a young Justin spending time with Diddy has resurfaced in recent weeks.

In one video, Diddy is seen alongside a bashful Justin. Diddy stated: “He’s having forty-eight hours with Diddy, where we hanging out and what we’re doing we can’t really disclose, but it’s definitely a 15-year-old’s dream.”

A heartfelt interview from 2020 also saw him confess that he “believes he wouldn’t be alive” if he had continued on his path of self-destruction. Despite Justin’s last Instagram post dating back to September 3, his fans have been flooding social media with messages of support. On his most recent post, one fan commented: “The world should have protected you. I’m so sorry,” while another wrote: “Diddy is finally caught you can rest.”

“Justice is coming bro!!!!!” one enthusiast exclaimed, as another chimed in with words of support: “Hollywood did you so wrong. Keep ya head up high. This darkness is coming to light.”

Bieber, the pop sensation, bared his soul to Zane Lowe during a 2020 Apple Music interview, where he expressed a protective sentiment over Billie Eilish.

Engulfed by emotion during the interview, Justin gave a nod to his tumultuous past in response to Zane’s question about self-destruction, affirmatively stating, “100% yeah. It would have been no bueno. It was bad. I don’t know if I’d be alive, for sure. If you think about how young I was and so impressionable, you have everybody telling me how awesome I am at all times. It was just insane, how do you...” His thoughts trailed, revealing the overwhelming nature of stardom at such a tender age.

- Justin Bieber’s fans rally in support amid Diddy scandal sharing emotional messages online, TheMirror.com, September 24 2024.

3. Melania Trump’s eponymously titled memoir is a 180-page exercise in buck-passing and blame-dodging. The former US first lady blames staffers for plagiarizing Michelle Obama; repeatedly stresses her love for her husband despite professing to abhor lying liars who lie; and declares abortion a fundamental right, without pausing to consider Donald Trump’s role in attacking it via the US Supreme Court.

Melania is by no means an exhaustive read, but it does leave the reader asking why she has chosen to bare her soul just weeks before the election. Or whether Kamala Harris might more accurately channel her policy preferences than her husband, the Republican nominee yet again.

Many subjects are missing. Not surprisingly, Melania has nothing to say about other women in her husband’s life: E Jean Carroll (the woman Donald defamed and sexually assaulted); Stormy Daniels (the adult film star whose hush-money payments led to Donald’s criminal conviction); Karen McDougal (the former Playboy Playmate who also had an affair with Donald). There are less than a handful of passing references to Ivanka, Donald’s oldest daughter who he said he would have dated if she weren’t flesh and blood and who Melania is widely reported to loathe. Trump’s children by other women barely get a look-in. Melania does repeatedly say she loves her own son, Barron, and her parents too.

True to form, no clue is offered as to who assisted in writing Melania. In contrast to Breaking History, the White House memoir by Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband, Melania does not offer acknowledgments. It’s a decent bet someone lent her a hand.

- Melania by Melania Trump review – a blame-dodging masterclass, TheGuardian.com, October 13, 2024.

本文僅代表作者本人觀點，與本網立場無關。歡迎大家討論學術問題，尊重他人，禁止人身攻擊和發布一切違反國家現行法律法規的內容。

About the author:

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

（作者：張欣）