Saturday, February 1, 2014

No strings attached

We live in a world of exasperation,
awkwardness, invisibility, dominance,
frustration, anxiety, stress, confusion,
seclusion, desire, disconnect
And last but not least distraction

Where there should be so many threads
each interacting, each connecting,
we have instead a shared string here and there;
Twin weights to fasten it between them,
a private world to which others
are simply not invited.

Yet others have cut their strings,
so that they are impossible to tie down.
But they do not float away like soap bubbles-
they just stay there- lone weights,
with nothing to hold down,
no purpose.

Sometimes someone will attempt
to throw them their own string
but even if they accept another's,
they will never be able to reciprocate
and it is hard to watch kindness not repaid in kind,
no matter from which end you are viewing it.

It hurts no less to be
a receiver incapable of giving
then it does to be a giver
who cannot receive.
And so the purpose of our strings
is lost.

It is my hope that one day
we all realize that you can't help a person
with no strings
by throwing her yours.
You can only try to help them
to braid a new one
and hope to all that is good
that it can be as strong
as the strings we are all born with.

To those of you out there
who for some reason live
involved in seclusion
Please, do not cut all strings.
Attachment can hurt
but it is our purpose,
without it we wither and die.
Once a string is cut it's impossible
to restore it to it's former state.
Tie your strings to as many as you can
and maybe one day
we will all be connected.