TO BE HUMAN
A conscience is like one big cake that you're not supposed to eat, but sits openly on the living room table.
Every time you enter the living room, you can't resist the urge to take a bite on the cake. And with every
bite, the cake keeps getting smaller and thinner, until one day you're left with no cake, but a big empty
plate of self-hatred at your own gluttony.
It has been said that the first sin is usally the hardest to commit. After that, you're like, what's one more?
One more.... One more sin is like one more bite on the cake: infinitesimal and yet lethal. It sets into
motion a chain of compromises, that sooner or later, locks you into a pattern.
A pattern.... A pattern of doing things you swore you'd never do. A pattern of crossing lines you swore
you'd never cross.
Cross... Every saint and sinner carries their own cross. And despite how crooked and narrow the path a
saint treads, being a sinner is not for the faint of heart...
It takes great courage to spend your waking hours agonizing over the burden of guilt; the sleepless
nights battling with ghosts of the hearts you've broken, the rivers of tears you've set in throbs... It takes
great courage to stare eye to eye with self, and despite the resentment and regrets you harbour, abstain
from hurting yourself and others.
In Beyond good and evil, Friedrich Nietzsche wrote: "Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a
monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you". Get up, stand tall, raise your
head high, and remind yourself that in the battle between good and evil, victory lies not in defeating evil,
but in remaining human even when dealing with monsters.
Heroes are not those who do good without being evil, but those who do good despite being evil.