The Tragedy of Projecting

The tendency to attribute one’s failure to others is epidemic. Instead of owning our missteps and falls we seek reasons beyond our control relieving us of personal agency. So many victims. So many people who judge and attack. Hiding from mirrors that reflect hypocrisy and dissonance. These are conditions of man. I am not without blame. An imperfect person in an imperfect world.

Projecting our failures on others robs us of opportunity to learn, to grow. We hide within our tribes, mimic the walk and the talk, wrapping ourselves in robes of superiority. Arrogance and ignorance are the cancers that eat away at our souls, poison the air that we breathe. Our ears cannot hear over the roar of our mouths. Where bridges are possible, walls are built.

I embrace the role of a solemn wanderer, seeking quiet, hungry for enlightenment, never comfortable in stasis. Opinions, intellectual flatulence that pollutes the air of its targets. I pledge to hold my mouth and open my ears to the world that surrounds me. Agreement is not the requirement, but the tonic of a life well lived. I will fail along the way. I will not look externally for the reason. I own my path and walk it with open eyes.