I have spent the better part of my career helping people recognize and dismantle their defense mechanisms. Projection, rationalization, displacement I could spot them from across a waiting room. What I was less skilled at identifying was my own titanium-like minimization system, which allowed me to look directly down a gas can spout, get a spring-loaded object fired into my eye, and respond, “It’ll probably be fine.” This is an essay about denial. Specifically, about mine and what it cost me, and what it taught me.