Happy birthday, Mister Wilde…

“Do you really think it is weakness that yields to temptation? I tell you that there are terrible temptations which it requires strength, strength and courage to yield to.”

It Could Have Been You

See, I believe the darkness in me to be inevitable to a human experience, but unnatural on a soul level. On a soul level, darkness is a willful corruption that should be fought, not cynically accepted and indulged in. I have seen corruption in places I expected to find purity—who wouldn’t hide their horror and confusion under snarky dismissal, and rebellious indulgence in questionable delights?

I’m beginning to believe that this decade has mostly been about rebellion against the light—begun in 2000 and continuing to this day. Oh sure, we’ve as a society made sure to manufacture reasons and rationales; but don’t for a second doubt that they were manufactured. The anti-PC, anti-spiritual backlash against thirty years of personal advancement as a society—including the forced association of all spirituality with religious fanaticism or naivete–was more about the inconvenience of giving a shit, than it was about freedom or common sense.

And I’m beginning to perceive that I’ve been caught up in it too, that psychic looting and burning: “Fuck the New Agers, I’m gonna go do Jager shots and listen to AC/DC.” Yes, sex, drugs, and rock’n'roll are a part of my spirituality and path. But so is a certain lightness, a certain brightness, a certain sincerity that has nothing to do with innocence or naivete.

Yes, much of the world sucks right now. Yes, much is worse than it used to be, even earlier in my brief lifetime. Yes, we might actually have doomed ourselves—our society, our species, the planet. So? There’s still a choice, there always has been and always will be. And it’s not a hopeless fight. No matter how slim the chances of making a real difference, let alone turning things around, the right heroic attitude might blow that door wide open— might render the nearly-impossible, suddenly inevitable. Is it not worth doing? Is it not worth sacrificing everything for?

Even a soulmate?