Myself

~ Sanity is living in accord with someone else's definition of reality. ~

If I were truly myself, and not that which others wish I were.  I would not wonder at a world I leave unknown, but would throw myself into the act of knowing it.

If I were truly myself, I would not live my life under the ostentatious order of any other than I.

If I were truly myself, I would act as I would act, and not as others would my actions.

If I were truly myself, I would leave that which I desire to leave, do that which I desire to do, be that which the very depth of me knows that I am.

But I am not myself.

I am other; I am of other and for other.  I am the tightly bound intentions of those who seek to guide my good.

I am the pent up reactions of someone else's mislaid moments.

I am slave to a hundred thousand duties not my own, bound by a hundred thousand oaths I never pledged.

I am living a thousand separate lives and not a one my own.

Yet this life, lashed so fast to the ends and means of others, is the life, thus far,

I choose.