We Are Creatures Of Denial.

Denying the reality is a way of life for most of us. It has become our second nature. We wear a mask hiding our pain from the world.

Image by Tswedensky from Pixabay

Living is not about accepting reality, 
But about denying it.
We are a creature of denial.

Athletes refuse to accept pain, 
To push themselves beyond their limits,
To build their stamina,
Enduring pain by denying it is second nature to them.

We, ordinary people, 
Deny our present miserable existence.
We survive in the hope that our tomorrow will be better than our today.
We live from one hope to another.
We go to sleep every night, 
Hoping to wake up,
By denying, we might not.

When someone hurts us, 
We deny feeling hurt,
And go about unruffled.
We are taught from childhood to swallow our emotions.

The money we earn, drenched in our sweat,
Shop-soiled with our burnt ego.
But we deny these pains to console ourselves that this is normal,
And splurge as if there is no tomorrow.

Our past forms and shapes us,
The way wind shapes the face of the mountain.
Each encounter, 
Planned or otherwise,
Known or unknown,
Change us irrevocably.
Yet we deny this fact, 
Lying to ourselves, we can start afresh.

We train like the endurance athletes,
To bear and postpone pain,
Absorb embarrassment, 
And suffer without complaint.

But this is the way of life,
To go about despite all odds,
To show a brave front,
To keep on smiling,
To carry on with a swagger.

Now, when you see a smiling face
Know that there is pain hidden deep within,
Masked by convention, fear, and ego,
As if in a masquerading ball,
One obfuscating from the other.