In the cage my life began; Well I know the worth of Man. By the Broken Lock that freed —

Man-cub, 'ware the Man-cub's breed! - The Second Jungle Book (Rudyard Kipling)


I was called a sage and a prophet this weekend. I'm not sure how I feel about that. On any given day, I have no more idea of what I am doing than anyone else. I just know what the truth is when I see it.

Cages. We're monkeys, we run towards the cage and away from the thing we fear the most, when who and what we fear the most is usually the right answer. If you burst into tears and shake your head when someone says that you are their Hero, maybe you should take a moment and accept that mantle. If someone tells you that you are strong and you feel weak, maybe you should accept that mantle. If someone tells you they saved your life, maybe you're a Lifesaver.

Life is not easy for any of us. We have places of comfort that deaden us to the path we should walk. Drugs, drink, work, other people. You have to remember why you chose to walk that road in the first place. Was it to trade one cage for another or to find something new?

The hardest thing any of us can do, in the path of self discovery, is look at what we think is wisdom, think deeply about how we got here, and make the hard choice -- every time.

No, I'm not talking about you, or maybe I am. The Universe will not tolerate you being less than you can be. If will strip you bare and throw you in the street if it has to to get your attention. I've seen it, time after time.

I used to say I fight the world -- you can't fight the world, only yourself. It's the Paradox of the Scorpion:

A man was buried to his neck and left to die as a means of torture
The scorpion came to him and the man asked the scorpion how he would keep from going mad
The scorpion said "Love your pain and cherish it and it will leave."
And then man said "If I love my pain, I won't want it to leave."
The Scorpion said "Now you understand pain."

Until you look for the thing you fear most, and embrace it, it will never leave, and when it leaves, you won't want it to.

I feared being alone and now... well, that story is never finished.

We who walk a road on fire, must make choices, hard choices every day: abandon the comfortable lie and embrace the difficult truth, or climb in a cage of our own design.

Might as well, we built it.

Break your chains and burn with me.