When you build a life structured upon having all that you think others would want..out of some inner need to feel important, successful, and relevant…you risk missing out on a life YOU actually will find peace and freedom in.
You sacrifice even your very families in a sense; for a world that could care less; because now you must maintian that image.. You are left having to add many other things into the mix in order to keep up with what you have “built”; and still, the Jone’s keep setting the standards higher and higher….
Here, I primarily speak of seeking more than one can appropriately and comfortably afford or handle. When the craving to fit in to society so consumes you, you are willing to put it all on the line in order to appease that voice within that tells you, you must have more.
One example being the American mind and its pursuit of all that’s superficial; in comparison to some immigrant families I’ve met who work far more hours, but in order to keep their kids fed and properly educated and cared for. We here will many times sacrifice time with our kids or time to better our souls, for all that glistens and glows..and some sacrifice the same, or more, just in order to preserve life.
We toil and strive; and not for the things in life, that when it’s all said and done will be deemed the most significant to us…but the very least significant things.
We sacrifice meaningful things, for the meaningless. We sell ourselves, our families, our time, and spirits in many senses; for an image we wish to create..and not for ourselves (though for our fragile egos perhaps) or our loved ones; but soley for the world.
For what others will see and hear.
If we sit back and consider it; much of what we strive for…is honestly..for others.
Others opinions of us.
It’s like selling ones soul perhaps. Handing over what life was created for; for the hope of being someone or something others would admire or wish to be/have….and all for a sick culture and society to applaud us.
It may in fact scratch our ego for a bit; it may satisfy the itch for a moment.
But in truth, anything done for ego..for image..for superiority..is bound to leave us empty and taxed. It is not fulfilling.
What you choose to consume, will indeed consume you.
And I can’t be upset( well I can and often am), or blame another..when it is my own lusts (earthly desires), that have beaten me down and caused more drain than rest. More stress than rest. More work neccessary, than rest.
We choose which images to bear(resemble). Which idols to mimic, and which people and places we wish to entertain and impress. And there seems to always be some sort of sacrifice that must take place, that always goes along with worship. Sacrifice and worship often appear together, hand in hand for some reason. What we worship, give ourselves to..usually has some price.
We choose what we live for. And I am not intending to sound religious or fundamental. These words are more for poetic purposes; and they are words simply entrenched within my head, from years of being over religious and fundamental myself.
We want the world; its eyes, its ears, its recognition. We want to impress for every wrong reason, and we will thus have to work through those bristles and thickets..to find contentment. For with wrong motives and desires, maytimes comes toil and strife. What we hoped would bring us contentment, eventually shows itself for what it is.
We many times, get exactly what we wanted; but just forgot to count the cost….
The Undoing of Me 