Monday, July 30, 2007

Time to put away the easter bunny...

Remember how when I was ranting about how JKR shouldn't be vilified for writing her story the way she wanted to? Damn straight, and she did too. Good for her. Anyways, I promised more on belief in that post and this would be it.

I have always believed that the act of believing in something was far more important than the something actually being true. The ability to believe is a beautiful thing.

Watch any group of 3-8 year olds and if they're lucky and their parents get *it*, even older than that. They'll meet at a playground and play with abandon. For hours they'll whoop and run and tag each other, slide down the slide in more and more intricacy. Ask the the name of their new best friend however, and they'll stare at you blankly. They're busy believing that's their new best friend. It doesn't actually have to be. In fact, in large cities perhaps they won't even see that person again but for that brief moment, their belief makes it real.

Oh sure, I get the whole self delusional thing and how dangerous that can be. I'm not talking about believing you can walk off a roof and live because you have superpowers.

I mean the so called little things like looking for the good in people. Things like 'smile and people will smile back', or 'always do your best' or 'winning isn't everything'. Homilies like those and dozens others have coloured my life.

I've always believed that just around the corner... No matter what's happening now, that something good is going to happen.

I always want to believe that the people I love are really who I see them to be, not who they tell me they are or who they act like they are at times.

And I hang on to that belief with all my heart, even when faced with incontrovertible truth to the contrary.

There comes a time, however, when one must face the truth, hear the reality and start accepting people as to who or what you want or wish or need them to be. It's difficult and unfair and frankly sucks but it's still something that has to be done.

Hang on to your dreams as long as you can. Letting them go before their time is wrong ... so is holding onto them past their expiry date. Learning when to stop believing is as important as believing, probably. But damn it, I sure wish I was wrong.