Paths
I cannot possibly remember everything I’ve written over the years. However, when I read stuff I wrote years ago, it will take me back and, often, provide me with new insight — as though those old words were written for new situations, things that did not even happen yet. Four years ago I wrote the following comment on someone’s Facebook post — I don’t remember who it was, the trail ends with the re-posting of that comment on my timeline. But it’s better that way because the sentiments I expressed apply to so much more than just some isolated situation. In fact, in the four years since I wrote it, I have found myself questioning my own “path,” my very place in the world and my purpose. I allowed conformity and the status quo to invade my sense of who I am. Needless to say, they lost. And I won.
November 21st, 2015:
So, at 30 you still don’t know what you want to be when you grow up? Who says you have to? Who says you even have to grow up? Society? Fuck society — look what it’s done to the world. Do this, don’t do that… sometimes for good reason, some things because they will hurt you or someone else, but those things have reasons kind of built in. They’re called conscience, or morals, or values or even “spiritual principles,” but so long as we stay in touch with and true to who we are, with that same innocence we were all born with, it’s not so out of reach. But that other stuff, the who you can like, the what you can think, the how things are done, the which path to take, the who is “deserving” and who is not stuff — that’s a world of know-it-alls trying to justify the way they do things by making them “the” way. The path less traveled is less traveled for a reason — it’s hard. But it also holds unknown rewards that those living in a cube pushing a pencil will never know or understand. And because they don’t understand, it must be wrong, right? I feel sorry for them, but I would never say it’s the “wrong” way to live their lives. It just isn’t the way I would choose to live mine… as though I even have a choice, really.
