Can people change? Do they? I believe they can. I also believe that the vast majority don’t, at least not without serious motivation and effort.
Once upon a time I was known as The Test Dummy.
It’s not that I had no fear, but rather that fear never stopped me from pushing my limits. I was not exactly reckless. I fully understood consequences. I just did not let the possibility of negative consequences stop me from trying something. I knew my limits. I also knew when those limits could be extended. I would stop only when possibility became probability. In other words, if a bad outcome was the ONLY possible outcome, I would (probably) show restraint.
Why do I bring this up?
Since my physical journey stalled, I have slipped into a state of limbo. I am existing instead of living. I recently had a regular check up with my doctor, and discussed this with her a little. She (rightly) sees this as depression, and recommended I seek counseling. In our discussion, she said to me that sometimes people have to be willing to jump off a cliff. That made me laugh internally. I am The Test Dummy after all. But it also made me think.
Have I actually changed that much?
I don’t think I have. But I do recognize that the weight of experience in an unkind world has siphoned my energy level enough that what I once did without thought I now need to convince myself to do. THIS I am not so happy about. Have I started let the insidious siren song called FEAR actually influence me?
I don’t know that counseling is the answer for me. One cannot fit a square block in a round hole without altering either the block or the hole. In my mind, counseling is just trying to reshape the block to fit in the hole, when the problem may actually be the hole itself. I am no fan of society as we know it. For me to actually fit in it would require society to change an awful lot. It’s not that I feel somehow superior to others, but rather that the shape society has taken has not been defined by what is best for humanity as a whole, but rather by those who would mold things to conform to their own selfish needs.
Some might call this a midlife crisis. In my mind, neither my attitudes nor my desires have changed since my youth. I just understand them better. Ironically this does not help clarify a very uncertain future any more than when I was younger. What I lack most is purpose, something I seemed to find much easier when I was younger. So where do I go from here? That is really the question that needs to be answered, and that is precisely the answer that I do not have. The only certainty I have is that simply existing is not going to cut it.
Time to start living again.
Yes to what you’ve written except mid-life crisis. This is what society would call it to give it a negative vibe but in reality, it is a mid-life awakening, one I have entered. I’m starting to see the road I’m on is not the road I should be on, but one chosen by society. I’ve conformed to fit, but I’m unconforming to live. I do not fit into society’s shape either.
Good luck on your journey.
I don’t think of it as a mid-life crisis either. As you say, that is how society might label it. I suspect there are many who are in the same boat as us, especially in this time of political revolution. It is awareness of this very issue that is partly responsible for the revolution. Hope your journey is as rewarding as mine promises to be.