The tightrope

It was easier being young. Then, everything was charted out for us, and there was a course to be followed, a path trodden by many before us. Our choices were limited, but oddly, we weren't unhappy. Perhaps it was because with the limited choices we had, we had correspondingly less obligations. We were beholden only to ourselves. It makes me wonder if having too many choices is what makes us unhappy. Because it seems that the choices we have now come attached with responsibilities that we never imagined. Now it seems like everything becomes a conflict between what you want to do, and what you should, or must, do. And sometimes there isn't even that, because you don't even know what it is you want. Moving ahead to the unknown future is terrifying, living in the past is crippling, and all roads lead into the fog of war which clouds our sight. Hindsight is always 20/20 but to the future we are blind.

I don't know if we will make it to where we want to be. I don't know if everything will turn out all right. When we were young, it was almost a certainty that things would be all right. What was the worst that could happen? You fell, you got up again, you started walking. But to so many of us now it seems like we walk blind on tightropes stretched over crevasses of the unknown, and the safety nets of our youth are gone. And taking the leap of faith when you cannot see the other side seems like suicide.

But maybe sometimes we need to fall to find another path.

For those whom I've spoken to, written to, met up with in the last few weeks, hang in there. And I'm here if you ever need me to be.