New & Improved, Same As Before

In adulthood, as also in adolescence, we have fear. Fear of what others may think, fear of our own action (or inaction), fear of repercussions, fear of being alone, fear of bearing witness to horrible things, fear of our own selves. For as much as we would like to think we live in the moment and take life as a present and hold sacred all that we are given, the truth is that many of us are controlled by fear.

I am such a person.

I do not like this aspect about myself, and I have witnessed other's struggle with this as well. To break free, to punch through, to set a course for sunny days and sun-dappled meadows is a dream, but we hold ourselves back. I am guilty of holding on to things I have done that the offended party has long since forgotten about and yet I carry the weight of this invisible, featherlight cross. Why do we as people do this to ourselves? Do we believe we do not deserve happiness? That we are somehow incapable of holding on to something pure and wholesome lest we pass our corruption unto it?

I, and by 'I' I mean men in general, tend to put the things we love on a pedestal. The women we love, the father we can never get the approval from, the emotionally distant artistic friend, whatever it is that we see a bit of ourselves in and want to be a part of, something great. We want to part of something that we believe we cannot obtain.That this great, awesome thing is so far beyond our reach, but only because we have put it there.

This pedestal, you see, is fragile and far to tall for it's purposes, built with unrealistic expectations and pipe dreams. Anything we place upon it is incapable to living up to the majesty that we have crowned it with. The beautiful woman who is 'perfect' may have the same fears and neurosis as the homely woman that envies her. The student with the 4.0 gpa has the same fear of failure as one with a 2.8. The lonely man with no family has the same fear of dying alone as a the grandfather with a young child on his knee.We are all more alike that we might think. I don't know how to fix this, but I know it starts with me. And it starts with you. We all have our journey and it's going to be filled with pain and sorrow and some really horrible things. But also joy, and happiness and some really kick-ass people to help you get over those really horrible things.

Plus there is tiramisu and that is just awesome.