A Question of Causation Thursday, Dec 7 2006 

I truly recognise these moments for what they are.

Moments of great doubt, great anger, great hate and mostly, great fear.

I can feel it, so powerful, mounting a full assault on my entire person.

For fear leads to doubt, which leads to more fear, which leads to more doubt.

And from this cycle, all things flow.

I had thought that perhaps after one great catharsis of lenghty ranting, that I would look back and laugh at myself.

But even today, I still feel every word biting me, every word of the previous post ringing so strongly in my head.

Indeed, words of fear and hate have become the loudest phrases in me.

And today, while I might sound much more collected than yesterday, the same feelings and emotions flow through my veins.

The hopelessness, the dread, the anger, the fear and the hate.

I have already realised, for quite some time actually, that my troubles always begin with people.

For if others did not exist, or were made invisible, I would probably not be bothered with all the other troubles that have plagued me these days.

All the fear about my future, all the resentment of who I am.

I am too this, not enough of that. The list can go on and on.

But which is first cause?

Perhaps something that is lesser known about me, perhaps known only to those with the eyes to see me, is that the things which truly bother me are those to do with people.

At the root of every chapter of my tribulations, lies a core issue which will surely have to do with someone, or some people.

It is something that I have realised: It is never about things.

Before I started to care about people, I was at ease with myself. I was confident, assured, loving towards myself.

I do not understand how this causation has come to be true, but true it is.

Up to now, I do not understand why I do not make the choice to exclude everyone else in my life, to make them invisible.

Perhaps it is because in the deep recesses of my heart, I want to overcome this.

I want to love myself, while being loved, and loving others.

Perhaps that is true existence to me.

Yet who ever said that true existence was easy?

When I look around me, the facts seem simple.

Most do not see me. They look at me, but they do not see me.

Those who see me, they do not really care for seeing me. It makes no real difference to them whether they do or not.

I really don’t know what I have missed, what I have been blind to.

Maybe it is my fault, my own blindness that is the problem.

Perhaps it is always easier to hate others for hating you. Easier to dislike, distant yourself, from those who dislike you, those who have created a barrier in front of you.

After all, what are the alternatives, really.

Do you hate others for hating you, or do you hate yourself for others hating you?

Perhaps both, perhaps both.

Really, it could be a question of extent, like so many other things are.

I truly feel defeated.

I know that I have tried, and perhaps that knowledge merely adds on to the suffering.

But perhaps the knowledge that adds the most to the suffering, is knowing that no one else would try for you as much as you have tried for them.

Which brings us back to first cause, which brings us to the question of the sponsoring thought.

Which came first, you trying, or people not?

You hating, or you being hated.

You fearing for you, or you fearing for others.

Losing your own love, or losing the love of others.

Which came first, the pain or the suffering?

There are so many questions that I do not have answers to, so many questions I am dying to find answers to.

Every single waking moment, the same fears plague me, the same sorrows drown me, the same hatred consumes me.

The paralysis of it all is breath taking.

All motion seem to require much more energy than before.

All words seem to require much more effort than before.

All thoughts seem to involve much more pain than before.

I am suddenly robbed of my senses.

Or did I merely abandon them?

Really, one of the questions I will be pondering over is one of causation.

What really caused this?

Was it because I loved the opinions of others at the expense of my love for me?

Was it because I loved the acceptance of others at the expense of my acceptance of myself?

Perhaps it was because I was left with an empty void from what was once there?

Perhaps the cause of my fear is my grief.

Which is another to add to my list of which came first.

Which came first, my fear or my grief?

Or maybe, it was because what I thought was there I no longer think is there.

Indeed, these few days, in fact, for these few weeks even, I have slowly lapsed into a great struggle.

A great struggle for rediscovery, for rebirth.

And like every struggle, this struggle begins, inevitably, with questions.

I can only hope that I am asking the right ones.

The Loudest Phrase Thursday, Dec 7 2006 

Maybe we inevitably make use of certain lenses to see people, to bring meaning to the way they act, the words they say, the perceived hidden thoughts behind these both. Lenses are lenses because we cannot know for sure, for absolute certainty, that they are facts, that they are the real world, independent of all observation.

Honestly, I no longer feel like a person.

I am an actor, a pawn, a function, playing a specific role in other people’s life.

A role which can be replaced, for I am not so unique as to be irreplacable.

For I am not so special that I should be treasured just for being who I am.

I am valued by my function.

Fail to fulfil that, and I cease to exist.

I could be the supportive friend, the trustworthy friend, the concerned friend, the brilliant work partner, the wonderful inspriation, the entertaining host, the witty comedian, the understanding listener, the succesful son.

Even if I were all of that and more, I would remain merely a role, easily replaced.

That is who I have become, an option, a function, a choice.

I no longer make the choices.

I am the choice.

Or rather, a not the.

Perhaps it is the fact that I can feel myself being seen this way, that I have begun to think this way.

“Be pragmatic, do the effective thing. Be great, powerful and succesful.”

I realise that I have truly begun to doubt.

To doubt everything and everyone.

Including, and perhaps most importantly, myself.

“Let’s face it. Who in their right mind will like you for who you are? They like you, or like being around you, or like talking to you, because you fulfil a function in their life. You are temporal and replacable.”

Honestly, I can no longer feel that being myself is enough.

I cannot say that I am treasured, cherished.

I grow obsolete, increasingly useless, unable and incapable of doing a good job of fulfilling my functions.

The obsolete are abandoned and eliminated.

Already, I can see the signs, and already, I feel discarded.

One by one, my clients have found a better provider of the functions and services I used to provide.

Their currency was their acceptance, their embrace, their love.

I cannot believe I bought that.

And maybe, right now, I can’t believe that I am no longer buying that.

I am no longer believing in this currency, I have lost faith.

I try, and try and try and try, to be everything people want me to be. I want their currency, I honestly do. And I continue to try.

But now, I live in abject poverty.

All I ever wanted was to be treasured, cherished, for people to want me for me, to be enough.

But there is no one who actually feels that way about me.

What is wrong with me! I cry out for knowledge, for an end to this ignorance.

What is wrong.

Finally, I have grown to hate myself.

Before I sleep at night, a multitude of thoughts enter my mind.

And a single phrase is the loudest.

I hate myself. I hate myself.

Why did I have to be me.

I wish I could start over, somehow be someone else. Someone whom people will like just for being him.

Someone whom people will try for, strive for.

Or at least someone who will succeed in trying.

I wonder what I have become: Do I discover what I have become through my words, or are my words who I have become.

Honestly, I no longer know my purpose, I no longer know why I am here.

I am a function which has lost its functionality.

I am not a person.

Why!

How can this be!

There are those who can be a person, there are others who are functions which actually function.

Why am I neither, why why.

What then, am I?

What then, am I supposed to do, supposed to be?

This is it, this is where all things end.

I hate me.

Some people say that the words, “I hate you” are the strongest, most powerful words.

They are wrong.

I hate me.

I am utterly disgusted, at every single thing.

I cannot bear to exist as me any longer.

And people hate me too.

I wonder which came first.

What I had, I have lost.

Or maybe I never had in the first place.

I am at a loss for words.

I am done.

Such an existence no longer has meaning.

At the end of the day, we are faced with a simple fact.

No one likes me, myself included.

Simple enough.

All that talk about treasuring me, about cherishing me, about liking me for me, about trying for me, about being with me, about sharing with me, about giving me the chance to share with them.

Well, let’s just face it.

Daryl, no one likes you. Too bad.