We Are Not the Protagonist.
To realize life is not your story alone, is to free yourself from the anxiety of writing it.
Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
We must know and remind ourselves that life is not our story. Everything doesn’t r/evolve around us. We are only 1 character in the long arc of history. Not the character, but a character. At one point we didn’t exist and at some point, we’ll cease to exist .
At the same time, we have always existed in the form of others. And we’ll always exist, in the form of others. We are the culmination of lives strung together from the beginning of time, if time had a beginning. We are a connector in the string that carries on after our deaths, until the end of time. If time has an end.
To truly live, we must realize we are a part of the story. We are not the protagonist. Our past is not the past. Whether this be humility or reality, it doesn’t matter, this is the truth. We can’t read, listen, watch, or live, always centering ourselves, only thinking of ourselves, desperate to be the main character.
The True “Original Sin”
Man has made this mistake before, thinking the Sun orbited the Earth. Egotistically thinking what gifts the Earth life would have less pull in the universe. That the Sun would carry less weight than the Earth it birthed and perpetually nourishes. We too think life revolves around us, confusing the order of operations. Desperate for power, desperate for control that humans will never have.
Humans create these false approximations of life and call them society. They build societies that oppose the natural order. They spit in the face of the Sun’s unceasing gifts of love, what we call light and heat. Instead society is based on restrictions, not on freedom.
It’s based on building the illusion that humans can have power over the universe, that life can revolve around them. That they can be the protagonist, whether hero or villain. That they can quench their egotistical thirst to play God. How disgusting society and its unnatural ways are. Humans try to resist these societies based on greed by valuing life and caring for it, whether in the form of other humans or nature. But these evil, unnatural societies stamp their love out by any means necessary. Physical violence and intimidation, emotional violence and mental manipulation. Society uses the destructive power of fear to imprison, undermining love’s gift of liberation.
There’s No Such Thing as Heroes
When I was younger I wanted to save the world. Then, I wanted to save myself from the world. Now I realize, I must save the world from myself.
From my false self, the ego the world manipulated me into creating. That bundle of endless greed, desire, and dissatisfaction that seeks control and never finds peace. Because my spirit, the true self, deep down knows it’s impossible. That I cannot play God, I cannot control life. That I cannot be a hero, for there are no heroes. Life is never wrong. Society often is, but is beyond saving.
Society rushes to destroy those seen as heroes. However, these “heroes” are humans, ultimately equal to others. The only difference is their knowledge that these social constructs are unnatural.
Maybe it's time for more antiheroes. More people absolutely honest about their own fallibility, but utterly convinced of society’s as well. Humans who don’t think perfection is a requirement to care, to work for better. Who create change by living a life authentic to who they are, and not who society tells them to be. Those determined to live according to the natural order, to give all of themselves without pause. Who don’t care whether they are painted as the hero or the villain, for they know they are neither. They know it is not their story. It never has been and never will be. They know fate is the author of all, and to fight fate is to die before death. It’s choosing a life without peace, because you’re determined to fight nature itself.
If you want to fight, don’t fight what a higher power has created. Fight what the lower power of humans have created, the evil values of an ignorant society. Knowing this means you will be the sole victor, because you have no power to convince others. But perhaps, you can inspire them to free themselves. \
Side Characters Are Free to Flow
To realize life is not your story alone, is to free yourself from the anxiety of writing it. It is a peaceful feeling, to not see yourself in everything. To allow yourself genuine curiosity about things other than yourself. You will feel how things relate to you, and then navigate back to yourself. You’ll remind yourself of the necessary emotional boundaries. Ones that allow you to be connected, while knowing you’re separate. You’ll find yourself invigorated by the blessed opportunity to be swept away, to be caught up in the flow of feelings. But never so long that you lose yourself.
To cease centering your ego is to lose your “self” and learn to truly love yourself and the life you are a part of.