At some point it’s just you. No one else. They told you X you did Y. They said up, you went down. They said for sure if you went that way now, forget it, you’re history. Yet here you are still standing, strong as an ox. You knew all along their protective measures were just prisons which they wanted you to share with them. Excuses for not taking the leap of faith. Because afterall, only you can help yourself, only you can blame yourself, and only you can get the rewards for your own efforts. Sharing and caring is the mutual reciprocation of these endeavors by each individual involved.

To rise for the heights and see even the stars as you pass them, O youth! Do not let them hold you back with this sacred thing and that sacred thing. It is sacred to them, not you! You have mountains to climb, peaks to conquer, valleys to enjoy. Oceans to reave, isles to plunder! If you choose to accept their version, by all means follow your decisions through. But don’t hold yourself ransom to their judgements. What do they know? Aught more than the next man, yourself, or the man after you. They have their perspective and you have yours. Only experience can teach, and punish if it must! And then, you’ve got this far, what could possibly come that you cannot handle? They can’t escape their vacuum of fear, they cannot follow their own instincts, so what is that to you?

And then there are those who will shout “freedom does not exist” as they hit brick wall after brick wall at the bottom of their souls. They are worth ignoring. Absolute freedom is just another way to jump into a void, but freedom, real freedom, the unshackling of chains and bondage to that which brings no joy, exists deep within.

But what about the ancients? The sages who went through it all and gave us, generously, copiously, with the greatest love possible to human souls. Hearken to them, for the best of them suffered the worst of crimes, and know whereof they speak. Yet, even then, only you are responsible for what you choose.