The Hidden Minds

The Framework

Devotion

Devotion / Detachment

Staying close and keeping faith with a bond at real cost, against withdrawing to a self-protective distance.

Every profile lands somewhere between devotion and detachment. Use this page to see which figures are pulled most strongly toward each pole, then follow the links down into the stories themselves.

Most toward Devotion

  1. 01RuthA foreign widow who clung where everyone else, sensibly, let go.
  2. 02Mary MagdaleneSeven demons gone, and the first clear mind at the empty tomb.
  3. 03JonathanThe crown prince who handed his own succession to the man who would take it.
  4. 04ElishaHe burned the plow behind him and would not leave his master's side.
  5. 05JohnThe one who stayed closest, and so believed first.
  6. 06PeterHe lunged, failed, wept, and that was not the end of him.

Most toward Detachment

  1. 01JudasPeter's failure, with one door he could not imagine opening.
  2. 02CainEnvy at a brother's acceptance, carried all the way to blood.
  3. 03EzekielExile numbed him into a sign, until even his grief was forbidden.
  4. 04JephthahThe outcast who bought belonging with a vow, and paid for it with his daughter.
  5. 05AbsalomA wound his father never answered, turned into a throne and a knife.
  6. 06EsauHe sold the birthright for a bowl of stew, then wept for the blessing he had despised.

Keep reading the framework

Back to all nine axes
ControlSurrender / ControlApprovalIdentity / ApprovalCallingAcceptance / Avoidance