And even if half the world loved you, what really is your gain?
It’s something I'd been pondering on a lot recently. How fleeting human nature is. How we lie to ourselves over and again till our own spun lies become our truth, and we don’t even know when we begin to live by that “truth.” I’ve thought about a lot of things recently. How easy it is to lose your way because it’s the way everyone wanted you to go.
Have you ever wondered to yourself what would have happened if you’d towed that path people hated? If you didn’t listen to the hundred reasons why you shouldn’t do that thing, because it’s difficult, or weird, or not just what is societally accepted? Have you ever thought to yourself what would have happened if you'd silenced the noise, and simply acted like no one was watching?
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. About acceptance and validation. If you strived so hard to be accepted, and you eventually get “accepted,” would it really be worth it? If you had to go through a long list where friends, strangers, people who may have never even said a word to you, had to validate you, would their words matter to you?
If you strived so hard to be accepted and, maybe, if not loved, at least tolerated, and even that didn’t happen, would you stop trying? If you were merely just existing, and still got a lot of hate would that push you into a depressive fit, or would that motivate you to live life like you don’t give a hoot, because in reality, you really shouldn’t?
If you heard the most unsavoury, untrue, utterly scandalous things about you, would you want to do the things you’re accused of because of spite, or would you treat it like what it is. Hateful noise? If you also knew the truth that had the power to sink everyone to the ground, haters and all alike, would you wield your power effectively, or would you wait for “karma?”
And again, I ask. Even if half of the world loved you, what really is your gain? Same world that would throw you under the bus, if they perceived, even in the slightest, that you were no longer “manageable,” that you were no longer conforming to their expectations, that you seemed to be forging a different path?
Several times I’ve asked myself. If you don't hurt anyone, not knowingly at the very least, and you’re still disliked, isn’t that enough reason why you should search eternally to no avail for how many hoots you give, and still come up with zero each time?
How much more pleasant, how much more desirable, how much more worthwhile, how much more lovely, how much more just, how much more peaceful would it be if you just did the things you do, surrounded by the people you love, and who love you, existing for yourself and your happiness alone, without caring what the next person said?
Because the truth is even half of the world loving you is too much in the grand scheme of things. Way too much, and way too unnecessary, and don’t forget, way too fleeting. So, I ask you now, because I may have run out of words:
Even if half of the world loved you, what really is your gain?
Image is mine.
