Darkness is a part of us all. You can embrace your Darkside, or pretend it doesn't exist. The choice is yours, of course. "Pretending" that you don't have a Darkside generally leads to darkness overtaking your entire life...that is one of the drawbacks to "pretending". If you allow darkness to overtake your entire life, any number of forms may it take; serial murderer, drug addict, sex addict, professional victim, religious fanatic, right winger hypocrite...fundamentalist. In a word, psycho-nut cases.
I myself, choose embrace my Darkside. Which is not to say that I let it run hilly nilly all over the countryside (or the web, as the case may be!). I accept my darkness, at times express my darkness, either verbally, or creatively, and get on with my life. Wouldn't you like to get on with yours?
And what is "Darkness"? Essentially, anything of which we are ashamed, anything that is not so pretty. So much of us is not pretty. There is certainly a great deal to hide. Just because something is not pretty doesn't mean it's evil or that it is not of value. "Not pretty" is really a cumulation of what is deemed as "not socially acceptable". Dangerous words...socially acceptable. What is "acceptable", that which we accept, that which we allow to go on. Murder? Rape? Any number of forms of violence? These are all "socially acceptable" in a manner of speaking. Are you going to tell me that the fact that football player likes to wear women's panties is somehow less "acceptable" than murder? Murders take place every day. We hear about them on the radio, watch it on t.v. We even have murders which are sanctioned by our government. And yes, it is upsetting. People do get upset about it. But are we shocked? Even surprised? Nope. It is all par-for-the-course down here, I'm afraid. A musical artist says something about being ashamed that she is from Texas, and the president is from Texas...people FREAK-OUT. I mean BIG-TIME-FREAK-OUT! Burning photos, destroying property...all over a differing point of view. When people are murdered every day, we freak-out over a different opinion? Why is that? Is it because we accept murder as a given? Apparently, we just cannot do a thing about it...
Take a brief glimpse at our justice system. An individual convicted of possession of cocaine can potentially get 5 years in prison. An individual convicted of child abuse, 18 months prison time. Does this seem reasonable to you? I am not saying I am for cocaine, far from it. I mearly believe that a child abuser should get a much higher penalty. One crime is a health issue, and the individual is hurting themselves. The other crime is a violence issue, and the individual is hurting someone else.
Think about it.
We convince ourselves of so many things in life, but mostly we convince ourselves that we are right about everything. We all go around, not just believing, but knowing that we are absolutely right about all of our beliefs, opinions, and thoughts. I am right, and anyone who disagrees with me is wrong. Some of us go a bit further, anyone who disagrees with me should be punished. And a bit further, anyone who disagrees with me should be eliminated. This is fantatical thinking, which often comes from fundamentalist thinking. For a fundamentalist, of any theocracy or belief system, not only believes, but knows that the world is made up black and white issues. There is no in-between for a fundamentalist. Truely, it is easier to live this way. For me, I choose to live in the real world, with all its wonderous shades of gray. Part of the grays are black, which is dark. Again, dark is not "bad", it is just what it is. We are the foolish ones who judge its worth in the light. How can one see darkness in the light? It is not true test. See the darkness in the dark, only then will you really know what it is, and what it is made of. For most people, this is much too fearful a task. They choose to wander around blindly, and "know" they are right about everything. It seems like a sad waste of time to me, but to each his or her own (or known) I say. What say you? |
