This is a little something I thought up while taking a shower and wrote shortly thereafter. An interesting bit of social commentary if I do say so myself- makes you think.
When you take a shower do you ever watch the little drops of water stream down the wall, looking at the little paths they take and the other little drops they meet, until they take that dive into the thin layer of water covering the floor because the drain hasn’t sucked it up yet? It’s like a soap opera, wondering what’s going to happen next, whether that drop right there is going to meet its end or is it going to swerve at the last moment. Did it ever occur to you how pertinent that really is? How much it can be applied to us? How closely we’re represented by these seemingly insignificant amorphous blobs of liquid? The shower head shoots water out of the wall, thus signifying the creation of lives and people. As the water hits the wall it forms into a droplet- this is our birth, the droplet ourselves, the wall and the path we take on it our life. Some drops of water race down the wall, trying desperately to be the first to be dashed upon the hard plastic floor below. Others cling to the wall, refusing to let go until they’re forced to. And as we meander our way down the wall, we come upon other drops of water and we combine with them. These other drops are the people we meet in life, and the combination represents the fusing of those two lives- forever you will always be linked. It redefines who you are; no longer are you your own entity, or even wholly your own identity. It doesn’t matter if you don’t like the person, it doesn’t matter if you do like the person, they will always remain a part of you, and you apart of them, and there’s nothing you can do to change that. You are forever altered by the people you meet, be they friends, parents, siblings, anyone. They leave an imprint on you, and regardless of whether or not you desire it, they are now a part of you- you’re a little bit of them, never completely yourself. Our personas are in actuality mere combinations, mixtures if you will, of the people we interact with. When you meet someone new you’re never the person you were before you met them. You incorporate some of them into you, whether you want to or not, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Once a drop of water has combined with another drop of water, they never split, ever. They also pick up speed on their path down the wall, rarely forging new paths, nearly always following the trails of their predecessors- as you know, water always takes the path of least resistance. So as we go through life we generally follow water’s example and take the path of least resistance. We go where we know is safe, where we know we can succeed- the chance of failure is frightening. Seldom is it that we choose to go our own way, make our own decisions. We’re given the illusion of free will in life, but in reality we’re being herded into simply navigating the beaten path. We think we’re choosing the course to our own life, but we’re just playing a big game of follow the leader. As a drop of water combines and recombines with other drops, it becomes bigger and bigger. As it becomes bigger it’s more likely to follow the watery streams of its ancestors, but it is also more likely to succeed should it attempt to break off into the unknown. Its sheer weight and mass give it the ability to create its own stream, but most often it chooses not to and follows the predestined course. As more and more people are added to your life it becomes easier to slip into the role of a sheep and to never do the leading yourself. It becomes easier to lose track of yourself, indeed, to lose your identity altogether. Despite the fact that your persona and your identity are redefined every time you meet someone, that doesn’t change that fact that it’s still who you are. You’ll always be yourself, even if your self is made up of bits and pieces of other selves. Only when you realize that, only when the large drop of water learns of its size, can you truly be your be your own person, truly make your own decisions, and truly trod untrodden ground. And inevitably we will all make that leap into the pool of water at the bottom, only to be sucked into the drain, filtered, and shot back out of the wall as someone else. Such is the endless course of life.
Topic: Drops of water... (Read 4341 times)
