There was a song that my mother used to played every Sunday morning. I'm certain I'm not the only kid that heard it all of the time. It started with Gospel Singer Yolanda Adams beautifully stating that she was alone in a room. Don't we all experience that? We are all, at points in our lives, alone in a room, reaching out for help. These are some of our most pure moments. These are the moments of reflection, the moments that we truly acknowledge our mortality. Sometimes our loudest cries go unheard because of our pride. Sadly, pride is louder than any cry for help. But, dare I say, there is no pride when you are alone in a room. That room is where men cry, where children that have grown up too fast wish they were kids again, where the single mother breaks down, where the addict tries kick his habit, where the young woman wishes she waited, where the teenage boy hopes to be his own man. Do you see it now? We are most alike when we aren't in another's presence. Stripped down to the very core, removed from any kind of affiliation, be it race/ethnicity, religious background, nation...we are all one. We have the same desires to right our wrongs and seek redemption. Neither of the two are easy. If you try to fight these demons alone in a room, you'll surely lose. You don't have to be alone. Fight together. Then again, I'm just a guy with a blog...What do I know?
First and foremost I love your song reference simply because music saves lives. I have read this blog entry several times today and everytime I read it, I find myself in an emotional uproar. You are absolutely right, it is in that room that we are most venerable and where we are okay with showing our imperfections. But it also in this room that we feel the most distant from those who surround us. I think the biggest problem is that while we occupy our rooms we become ashamed of who we are and the things we are going through, which ultimately makes it harder for us to reach out and seek help. We are afraid of showing others our weaknesses and how damaged we are, so we play a part. Wearing different mask to hide our pain. Paul Tillich wrote a book entitled "The Courage to Be" and in this book he asks would he or anyone for that matted really be liked or accepted if they really were themselves and not what others expected them to be? In this room we are ourselves, but why should we confine ourselves to a room to be who we truly are? Not only are we cheating ourselves, but we are cheating the world of our greatness. Why is it that we have to hide out alone in the room when we're hurting instead of having the courage to say hey I'm hurting and I need someone. I agree with you 100%, you will surely lose when you're fighting a battle alone. Battles aren't meant to be fought alone, that's why armies were created. Never be afraid to build a small army to help you fight off your demons because in the end you all win.
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