Monsters
“Men heap together the mistakes of their lives and create a monster they call destiny.”
I had a vivid imagination as a child and often created scary monsters to battle with my sword during times of make-believe. I remember drawing monsters using the scariest things I could think of which had nothing more than crooked and jagged teeth, a misshapen head and one eye bigger than the other. Hardly qualifying for any horror movie these days. I even had a make-believe monster named “Monster” living in my closet who was from Philadelphia (which was the furthest place I could think of at the time).
As I outgrew those imaginary fiends, different kinds of monsters came into being outside the innocence of my youth who have been much more furtive and sinister. They are the distorted mutants of what I was created to be that hide inside and rear their ugly heads when I surrender self control to self indulgence. The indulgence in itself may not be considered damaging or selfish, but unless I screen my behavior through the “will I regret my actions?” litmus test, I can be sure I’m feeding the monster that will overpower my inner man leaving me impotent to being the example I am trying so hard to be.
We all have our ‘inner monsters” who patiently wait to be awakened by dark and destructive desires. Fortunately for us men, there is also an inner warrior always ready for battle to overpower that which we are trying to conquer in our quest to be the man we’ve always wanted to be. But unless we train that inner warrior to identify the enemy, these inborn mutants won’t recognize themselves as monsters because that’s the norm in the world we have allowed them to live in.
The first step in conquering these mutations of what you were created to be is to recall actions that have brought you shame and regret, and please do not mistake a bad memory for a clear conscience. Look within yourself, because a guilty conscience needs no accuser, we never see things as they are, we only see them as WE are. Encourage yourself with things you are proud of and do not to speak badly of yourself for your inner warrior hears your words and is strengthened or lessened by them.
These deviates of our decency can be starved by simply no longer allowing the presence of exaggerated anger, jealousy, resentment, lusts or similarly flawed conditions to exist. Instead, fill your heart with the anti-venom of what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy. It’s pure physics, the natural law of displacement simply says you can’t have two things in the same space at the same time and you will always choose either the foe or the friend as the conqueror.
You are the only person capable of slaying these personal adversaries and you will always win the battle if you choose to practice the law of displacement and fill your heart and mind with that which is virtuous. The required strength will not come from physical capacity but from a visceral will deep within that is waiting to quell that which haunts you when you lay your head down to sleep.
Fortunately, we know the required silver bullet, wooden stake, or torch that will destroy these inner monsters. Unfortunately, there is also a demented gratification in each of us that protects them from the “armed villagers” that also reside inside of us that safeguards their repugnant existence. Just knowing these monsters exist is not enough, we must take a stand and become conscienceless killers of these haters of our character or our significance as men will be diluted, and he who undervalues himself is justly undervalued by others.
You are today from where your thoughts have brought you, tomorrow you will be where your thoughts have taken you. Except for our own thoughts, there is nothing else that is absolutely in our power. Feed your mind with encouraging thoughts, for believing in the heroic makes heroes.