Wed, Nov. 6
... The games that we play
So some of the
Nanos met for coffee and book discussions last night. I always find it interesting to meet people that I've had some contact with over the internet--it's interesting to put a face and real-life personality to the online personality... It's not always what I expect. In fact, it's pretty rarely what I expected. I'm pretty bad at guessing people's appearances based on their voices--audible or written.
I find myself thriving on the fact that there are other people out there who experience the same frustrations, in any aspect of life. I'm just realizing it with this. I think everyone naturally gravitates towards people who are going through the same issues that they are. It makes it easier to cope, somehow.
It makes it easier to write a paper if I know that there's someone else I can call with my frustrations over the way it's going. It's easier to deal with being lonely if I know there's someone else who feels the same way, and even if we don't alleviate each other's loneliness, at least we help conquer the silence about it. It's easier to write 50,000 words in 30 days if I can get together with other people who want to beat their characters to death and who know the frustrations of a plot that doesn't quite go where they want it to go. It's easier to run a ministry when there are people who are in the same boat and know what it's like to work with volunteers and the church in general.
Life wasn't meant to be lived alone... in "Our Town," there's a scene where the Stage Manager talks about how people were made to go through life two by two; they weren't meant to live it in isolation. People were made to be one half of a pair. But in a more general sense than marriage, I don't think God intended for us to struggle through life's hard times and victories alone. I think he intended for us to find the people who can be our support system and lean on them when we need to, and also to be the support system for other people to lean on.
It's a gift when those people come into our lives, whether it's just for a season, or whether it's forever. God gave them to us for a reason.
We were never meant to live this life alone, but too often, we think that we need to. We think that we have to be "strong" and that it's weak to admit that we need anyone. It's not. Needing others is what it's all about. We can't do anything alone, let alone become the people that God wants us to be. We need each other. We need to depend and rely on each other, or we'll self-destruct from the feeling that we have to be perfect.
It's freeing to admit that you need help. It's sad when you think you have to live life alone, because that's the time when we need each other the most.
infinite || abyss
posted at 12:28 p.m.
