Mind Your Thoughts

So, I don't know if you've heard of it, but there's this thing called “sublicide.” Allow me to explain: In the wild, amongst animals, specifically birds, sublicide is a term used to describe the brutal murder of a sibling, for the sole purpose of simply surviving. If there are less mouths to feed, the surviving mouth gets fed more, obviously.

To you and I, that's...pretty horrific. The thought of killing a sibling so you can live, is heinous. However, let's pick apart this...tradition, if you will. How often have we, as humans, viewed another individual who isn't biological family, as a brethren or a sister? It's a thing. It happens, and it happens often.

Moving forward, we should, at this point, acknowledge that jealousy also happens to be a reality. (I promise, there is a point on the horizon.) Jealousy can easily be pretty innocent like a friend's admiration of the other friend's beautiful hair; "Ugh, I'm so jealous of your beautiful locks."

Those complementary words, however, can also easily be rearranged, retouched, and dressed up to display a rather hateful message. The origin, however, would still be the same: admiration. This time, though, it would be admiration with a hint of envy, and perhaps just a dash of insecurity. What does that look and/or sound like? Hmm, something very similar to, "Do you ever wash your hair? It's too long to be that dirty," or "No one wears their hair long anymore. Stop trying so hard." Both of these phrases translate to the same set of words, "Your hair is beautiful."

Why not just say that, then? Why is it so hard to just complement your sister/brother/close friend etc? It's not going to hurt...but what if it does hurt? What if acknowledging someone's positive attribute meant shining the light on your own insecurities? What if shining the light on your insecurities was actually mental and emotional torture? The slow kind. The kind that makes you wish that you would just die already? What does one do to avoid said torture? They pronounce your insecurities; they suppress your mental stamina and make you question your own emotional endurance to the point where the thought of shining your light around them, will always be in question, because you are not interested in being dimmed.

Let's get back to that weird term, “sublicide” - the brutal murder of a sibling for the sole purpose of surviving. Have we not hypothetically died many times, at the hands of those we consider a brother, sister, friend etc? Death, my friends, comes in many forms. If you suppress my urge to shine, what, then, is my purpose? It most certainly is not to fuel everyone else's glow. Why have I been transformed into a shell of a person, for the sole purpose of your survival? Why have I now became a victim of humane sublicide?

I hate to be so dark, but it's rare that people recognize when they're a victim. It is even more rare, for a person to recognize that they are the attacker. Mind your thoughts, and as a result, you'll mind your words.