Wednesday 12 October 2011

You have always worn your flaws upon your sleeve

All of your flaws and all of my flaws,
When they have been exhumed
We'll see that we need them to be who we are
Without them we'd be doomed

Flaw: a mark, fault, or other imperfection that mars a substance or object.

I'll be honest and say that I'm not someone who is very open about their flaws, and I don't immediately step forward and admit when I'm wrong. I'm not someone who embraces flaws and I'm most definitely not proud of them.

I am, however, a firm believer in the fact that they can shape our characters. What doesn't kill us makes us stronger and all that. I do not believe that they make us who we are though. Not entirely, anyway. We can't allow our flaws to 100% define us. They play a part, and of course we can't just erase them, but we can't just go: "Yep. That's ALL I am. I am depression. I am self harm. I am unfaithfulness. I am an eating disorder. I am dyslexia" These things can help you grow as a person, and yes, they can represent a period of your lifetime, but they can always be overcome. We can beat these things, little step by little step.

Without these flaws, we'd all be the same. We'd be happy, clappy, my life is awesome and I can breeze on through type people. Now where's the fun in that? What do you achieve? Not an awful lot! When you're older, would you not rather look back and think, "Yea, I was there. But I got out of it... I overcame that." I certainly would.

They say that they're not puppets and then we point them to the strings

They line us up in uniforms
And tell us not to feel
They've never been to Heaven
But they tell us that it's real


They say that this is a free country and we're always told that we can be what we want to be, but it's funny how there's always a list of exceptions. There's always a list of rules that must be obeyed, a schedule, an order- a method of control.

Well reader, you can be anything you want to be! Did you know that? I just hope you want to be in full-time education until at least the age of 16, then try to find a job, then obey all the laws of the land! So, if you want to be rich, you better get yourself into a good job or do something illegal. But of course to get that good job then you've gotta have some sort of qualification, so you've got to go to school, which of course is the law. And if you do something illegal to get this money, then that's going to get you into trouble. Soooo, you can't be a criminal.

Also, you better not want to be a druggie. Or an alcoholic. Or addicted to anything really, because it'll either be illegal or expensive, and of course to get that money you've to follow some other regime or climb some ladder within a business.

Love, too. If you want to be in love, you've got to befriend, court, then see how things go. Then, in the longrun, you engage and marry the person. Then you have a few kids, get a house, a car, and a whole lot of debt. You've got to pay your taxes, keep the roof over your head and food on the table. So you better keep up that nice job that you're expected to do every day with those qualifications that you were forced into studying for throughout your school years.

And maybe, if you're into the Christian thing, you could go to a nice little church in your nice little town with your nice little family all dressed in your nice little Sunday outfits. When you get there you can be given some more rules... Don't kill, don't lie, don't cheat, don't swear, don't drink, don't do this, don't do that, don't do the other. All in hopes of going to this place where nobody on Earth has been, but we have to trust exists. And don't dare question it! That's doubt, and doubt is bad! I mean, how dare you think?

We're generally encouraged to think for ourselves, but there's always something limiting us. People tell us that it can't be done, we convince ourselves that it can't be done, we don't have the money, we don't have the time, it's too "out of the box." Society has everything organised and everybody knows what role is theirs to play. It's a big show. Everyone has their smile on their face and their lines rehearsed and so we go on with the show. Everything is under control. As long as there's control, everything's easy.

So why not make it more difficult? Step out of your comfort zone. See what you can do. The Greeks were great thinkers. They stepped out of the box and were always in search of the next big thing. They wanted the answers to the big questions- they set the trends. Why not be a Greek? Challenge the norm. Think for yourself and do what you want to do. Ask questions and challenge what you're told. Make sure sure you completely understand instead of just accepting it.