Abyss

Men are security, I feel that they can protect me and keep me safe: keep me grounded in what is real; or what the patriarch presents as reality. Women represent the abyss. They cannot protect me. I feel myself being drawn towards the edge of the unknown. I stand, palms sweating, knees shaking, heart pounding, resisting the temptation to step over; fettered by desire and fear. To release myself of these is to open myself up to the beauty of life, to the ecstasy of existence, to the truth that humans were not meant to suffer but rejoice in the knowledge of the unknown. cm 1991