Great article. Just a few thoughts that you got me thinking...
I think the fear of confronting monsters, is largely a fear of violence, the violence necessary to overcome them. Most people will do anything to avoid confrontation, particularly if that means confronting themselves. Once they've found the monster in the dark corner of their soul they would rather live with and ignore it, than accept the pain necessary to defeat it.
A violent man who acts in the cause of justice, has first of all done violence to himself. And a man who reproaches others who has not first reproached himself is the worst and the weakest kind of hypocrite.
“It is a serious thing, to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or another of those destinations.”
I'd like to think that because we all have monsters lurking within us, makes us all humans. If not for envy then we may never have drive to better ourselves, if not for hate, then we would never come to really appreciate what love really is.
After all a concept falls flat if there isn't anything to counter it, to make it stand out. Perhaps instead of eliminating all of our inner monsters, some could be transformed into something that can mold us as a person. After all, it will always be there, it's a matter of pruning them so to speak.
Loved this!
We have to own the monsters within us, control them, understand them, not pretend they don't exist.
Great article. Just a few thoughts that you got me thinking...
I think the fear of confronting monsters, is largely a fear of violence, the violence necessary to overcome them. Most people will do anything to avoid confrontation, particularly if that means confronting themselves. Once they've found the monster in the dark corner of their soul they would rather live with and ignore it, than accept the pain necessary to defeat it.
A violent man who acts in the cause of justice, has first of all done violence to himself. And a man who reproaches others who has not first reproached himself is the worst and the weakest kind of hypocrite.
“It is a serious thing, to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or another of those destinations.”
- C.S. Lewis, in The Weight of Glory
Well said brother, well said
Social media is the monster of our time. The ultimate distractor from dealing with the mini-monsters inside of us.
Also known as the shadow, confront it, make peace with it, learn from it, make it an ally....or let it devour you.
Great insight.
I'd like to think that because we all have monsters lurking within us, makes us all humans. If not for envy then we may never have drive to better ourselves, if not for hate, then we would never come to really appreciate what love really is.
After all a concept falls flat if there isn't anything to counter it, to make it stand out. Perhaps instead of eliminating all of our inner monsters, some could be transformed into something that can mold us as a person. After all, it will always be there, it's a matter of pruning them so to speak.
From Peter Gabriel, “I Own my Fears”
I'm scared of swimming in the sea
Dark shapes moving under me
Every fear I swallow makes me small
Inconsequential things occur
Alarms are triggered
Memories stir
It's not the way it has to be
I'm afraid of what I do not know
I hate being undermined
I'm afraid I can be devil man
And I'm scared to be divine
Don't mess with me my fuse is short
Beneath this skin these fragments caught
When I allow it to be
There's no control over me
I have my fears
But they do not have me
Walking through the undergrowth, to the house in the woods
The deeper I go, the darker it gets
I peer through the window
Knock at the door
And the monster I was
So afraid of
Lies curled up on the floor
Is curled up on the floor just like a baby boy
I cry until I laugh
I'm afraid of being mothered
With my balls shut in the pen
I'm afraid of loving women
And I'm scared of loving men
Flashbacks coming in every night
Don't tell me everything's alright
When I allow it to be
It has no control over me
I own my fear
So it doesn't own me
hamartia - to miss the mark; sin; monsters; demons
Yes, exactly.
You hit it spot on. You did not miss the mark.