Limits of Morality

  You think certain things about yourself, assume you’re a wholly “good” person with strong values. Judge others who misbehave, who cause harm by seeking their own selfish needs. But you never actually know who you are until you’re confronted with a choice.

We don’t often see ourselves clearly, and being faced with that knowledge, with that raw, undiluted truth before you is terrifying. It’s like the floor dropping out, all of your pre-conceived thoughts, the vision of yourself and your own moral values slipping away.

And what are we to do when we’re confronted with ourselves? When we’re finally able to glance forward at our own reflection, and really look, without the blinding light of fear forcing us to keep them shut?

Things are almost always easier said than done - you can’t hypocritically tell another person to face the truth about themselves when you can’t actually do the same for yourself. You can try, but they’ll surely resent you for it, and maybe they should. We’re all so obsessed with ‘fixing’ what’s wrong with others, because it’s easier to see things from an objective perspective; it’s easier to be confronted with an outside view and form a strong opinion about it.

And yet when we do that with ourselves, we become bogged down with our own excuses, and pain; transfixed with fear from the past, and who we might become. That’s really the focus of everything, and everyone, isn’t it? Either the past, and its weighted-down burdens, or the future and our crippling fear of who we’ll turn into.

The problem with that all, is that it completely takes focus away from the present. Who we are, now; what we need; how we feel; actions we’re prone to take; people we continually attract. It’s important, clearly, to analyze the past, but only so that you can recognize the continual patterns in your current life.

And as for yourself? Well, we’re all made up of various energies, of so-called “good” and “bad”, whatever that even means. The complexities of it all are beautifuly unique, and fascinating, but within that we’re likely to judge ourselves for failing to create some unobtainable version of ourselves. Perhaps, then, if we only accepted who we are, fully, we could finally manifest our full potential. Or at least, we wouldn’t be so god damn hard on ourselves.