folio

I get it. You think I’m crazy for living my life the way I do. I understand: you think I’m insane. “Everyone else is trying to flee that world! We only did it because we had to.” This is the frustrated rebuke of those encountering me a quarter of a century later. “We’ve spent a lifetime fleeing the culture you embraced. What’s wrong with you?“

Perhaps they don’t know what I embraced. Perhaps they have a warped picture of it. For sure, they haven’t walked in my shoes. Definitely, they had no idea what would work for me. I am certain they don’t know the way, only the accretions deposited on top of it.

If they believe I have embraced the way of intimidation and bullying, I can say that’s definitely not the path I have taken up. If they think I have taken up the path of compulsion and forced consent, that is certainly not my way. And no, this isn’t the path of terrorism and oppression everywhere imagined. That isn’t the path at all.

It could be the path some of your companions were on long ago, however. Perhaps I saw in it something of value. Perhaps I recognised its ability to liberate me and make me whole. I recognised something good in what you had.

It’s a shame that we swapped places, but to each their own. Perhaps you saw something good in what I had. Perhaps what I had appealed to you. Perhaps what you had appealed to me. No matter. We all have choices to make.

We’re all going hither and thither. For me, I decided to trust in the One. That definitely isn’t a crazy way, whatever some may think.