Vulnerability

Friends, it is a rough world out there. It seems like people are out to get us. It is common to see fierce arguments and hateful language on social media, things that I'd like to think people would never say about each other if they were in the same room. In the midst of all that, it is hard to allow our true, honest selves to be seen or heard. It is just too painful to reveal something about ourselves and then have someone else stomp on it with fellow commenters egging them on.

We are missing something in all of this, and it is the ability to be vulnerable. 

Vulnerability may seem like something to avoid. It opens us up to ridicule and attack. For some, it makes us fear that others will view us as weak, as incapable of dealing with difficult or even pretty innocuous situations. Some fear loss of status, loss of face, even loss of their job if they are willing to become to vulnerable.

And so, we don't really know anyone. What I mean by that is, if we are unwilling to be our authentic selves before others, then no one ever knows who we truly are. That may be a way to protect ourselves, to cope in a difficult world, but it is robbing us of something that we need as humans to be fulfilled: intimacy.

That's a hard thing to come by. If you have more than a few people who know your true self, with whom you have a level of intimacy, I would say you are fortunate. I think there are some who have no relationships like this, because the fear of vulnerability makes it impossible.

I know these are just words. They are just one person's opinion. But we need to allow others to be vulnerable with us and we need to be vulnerable with them. We need to let our guard down so we can have the types of relationships that humans, social creatures that we are, are meant to have. We need to make safe space with others so they can experience those relationships with us.

I don't pretend it's easy. I wouldn't come here and bare my weaknesses and fears openly. That's too vulnerable. But on a smaller basis, we have to do this, because not doing it is leading to deeper division and all kinds of health concerns for all of us.

At least, that's how it looks from where I stand today...