By: EE Cummings
A real human is somebody who feels & who expresses his or her feelings. This soinds easy... it isn't.
A lot of people think or believe or know what they feel but that's thinking or believing or knowing... not feeling. And being real is feeling not just knowing or believing or thinking.
Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but it's very difficult to learn to feel. Why? Because whenever you think, or you believe, or you know... you're a lot of other people. But the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night & day, to make you everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight... and never stop fighting.
As for communicating nobody-but-yourself to others, that means working just a little harder than anybody who isn't real can possible imagine. Why?
Beacause nothing is quite as easy as just being just like somebody else. We, all of us, do exactly this nearly all of the time and whenever we do it... we are not real.
If, at the end of your first 10 or 15 years of fighting & working & feeling, you find you've loved just once with a nobody-but-yourself heart, you'll be very lucky indeed.
And so my advice to all young people who wish to become real is: Do something easy, like dreaming of freedom... unless you're ready to commit yourself to feel & work & fight till you die.
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I think what this says is important on a lot of levels. Definitely a reflection of my aspirations & goals, not only in writing but also in LIFE.
It's hard to be yourself in the face of social competition, surrounded by most people that blindly conform into whatever is easiest... coolest... acceptable... popular. I am guilty of this a lot of the time. Its nearly impossible to be yourself 100% of the time.
However, when you find yourself in love, whether it's with a person, a place or an art, you're closer than ever. For instance, in a song or writing is where I'm most myself. Capturing all my emotions in my own little melting pot of self. When you find yourself in a moment in time when NOTHING else matters but that moment, and you & yours... in that moment alone, you're real... you're free.
That's the feeling I get when I write. On a particularly magical night. When I listen to a meaningful & good song. When I lie in bed with him for hours. When I cry & laugh at the same time when no one is around. In these moments alone, I'm real... I'm free.
