Entangled

She had this way of doing things; it was not entirely common so much that everyone thought it was quite weird. I mean, most of the time, if not all of the time, she had a different perspective, a different way of regarding things so much she would easily pass as the strange nerd only without glasses.

But, like everybody else, she had a story.

She still had some imaginary friends… pretty creepy right? I would say the same thing, well until I knew her full story.

The worst part is they all had names, the imaginary friends that is. There was the smart one, the lazy one, the ladies-man and then the strong woman, more like the woman of steel. She described all of these with a strange precision that almost made you think that they could be alive somewhere. Could it be the reason why she was all over the place, like she had conversations going on in her mind?

Digging deeper, I discovered that those were actually defense mechanisms; methods she had developed to express certain emotions that she dare not blurt out for fear of being looked down on, misunderstood or prejudiced. So she bottled all the envy, the fear of failure, the shock, the pain, the anger, the lust, the grief… she bottled them all up in a place where no one would find out. And for a while, it seemed to be working. Everyone thought she was pretty tough, like she would bear all the reproach, all the scorn without expressing a wink of defeat, or sorrow, oh but when the lights were out,  a few Curious Ears would hear her sob all night long, surrounded by this deep darkness that she couldn’t break open. Then when morning came, she was the same person as the day before, bubbly and social.

And so am wondering… do we live in a world that stops people from being themselves, do we live in a world that easily judges people who are different simply because they are different, without at least trying to understand their story?

Are we so quick to put out a candle then curse the darkness?

Sometimes, if we only cared as much as we judged, loved as much as we hated, embraced as much as we criticized, then maybe people would be less depressed, maybe people would be less distrustful… if only we had a world that embraced in love, and then sought out to correct your flaws than a world that first uses the rod!

And so somewhere out there is a weirdo, and she might continue to be that way until someone will be bold enough, loving enough to let her share with you what is it really that bugs her, what is it really that brought her to this level, what is it really that makes her the way she is… so until that happens, don’t lift your hand to criticize, don’t even think about making her or him the laughing stock, don’t be the one that thrives on inflicting more pain… if you can’t help then don’t hold anyone in derision simply because they are a little different…

“God grant me the courage to change what I can, the serenity to accept the things I can’t and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Mostly quoted, mostly loved but rarely applied words.