They Need Help, But Don't Get Too Close
If you're at all like me, you're aware of the dangers of caring too much. You understand this, so you don't let many get too close to you, but you still know that so many people need help navigating this mortal coil; after all, don't you? As a result, you're selective on who you choose to let into your inner sanctum. Still, it's quite a risk. Most of us have loved ones who have succumbed; succumbed to the siren song of moral laziness and rot and let their passions get the best of them. It is in situations like these that we are put in a very precarious place.
Take, for example, the case of a loved one who has developed or backslid into a substance abuse problem. Since we have allowed the person into our emotional center, we want to help them and pull them out of their downward spiral. But, far too often, we will get pulled down as well if we insist on being their savior. The only person that can help them is them.
While it is tempting to attribute external causes to your loved one's downfall, the harsh reality is that such “causes” are just catalysts; your loved one's fall was nearly inevitable—it was almost always going to happen, one way or another. Either we constantly do self work and stay diligent and focused on what is correct and right or we risk falling into decay and failing our higher purpose.
It does bear mentioning a particularly potent catalyst; that being demonic influence. While some may sneer at the thought of the supernatural, I would simply suggest that it is counter to any living being's interest to smoke or shoot fentanyl, certainly as a way of life or really at all. Yet, look at our cities. There is so much of this behavior in our immediacy, and we tolerate it. Truth be told, the drug use is not the only phenomenon that owes some allegiance to demonic influence; so does our acceptance and tolerance of such behavior. I don't find supernatural influence to be a fantastical explanation at all. It is nothing short of horrid when one fully understands the implications of what has become of our society with respect to this issue and many others. We have allowed demons to enter our orbit and direct our souls. They are ripping us apart right in front of our faces and we permit it to happen.
That's right; we permit it. That is to say, it is our choice to let it happen. We allow the demon to come in and do what it does. At least with adults, it is our choice, or [perhaps better phrased] our decision not to choose, and subsequently allow demonic influence to do its thing. To choose the right, to choose virtue, precludes indulgence in misdirected passions and heightens awareness against malevolent influence. To continuously choose this path is to become closer to your authentic self, push away what is not your purpose and grow closer to your Creator.
It is beyond painful to watch people who you once loved fall into ruin, but trying reach those who have chosen to be seduced is a fool's errand. We can only lead by example, and hope that one day others will follow. Indeed, we should insist on standards for our loved ones to follow lest they get tripped up, while we continue to grow stronger ourselves, putting in the work, discipline and suffering that is required of those who understand the world from the above vantage point.
Pray for the wisdom to know when to assist and when to detach, and if the latter is required, when to remember or when to forget. Our situation is difficult; collectively, we have made it so, because, ironically, our society has been guided by a
message of individualism. But, still more ironic, it will be those individuals who see through the fog that will guide humanity back to a place of thriving and flourishing.
Philosopher Julius Evola wrote, “If expired civilization is propped up to make it look alive, and if men are treated like rabbits or stallions, their unions being carefully and rationally planned, let no one be fooled; what they will generate will..., if the individualistic and utilitarian element dominates,...lead the races toward the path of regression or extinction according to the same inexorability of the law of entropy and the degradation of energy.” Are we an expired civilization, with demons picking through our remains? Sometimes it appears so. But, because we can choose to degrade ourselves, we can also choose to rise once more. We are not destined to be “bug men”; we are destined to be free to choose the proper order, but that also means that we're free to perish.
Many of our loved ones, because they chose poorly, will expire in tragedy or without any fanfare.
This we must accept. Still, however, there will be others who we can guide and lead to a better place. The key is knowing who to cast our pearls before. This starts with a commitment to resist atrophy and proceeds in the development of acumen, eventually, from time to time, demonstrating grace. Such is the stuff of the leaders of men; and leaders cannot be when they allow their passions to get the best of them. Sadly, this can sometimes mean trying to help those we love.
There is a higher purpose, and pursuing it does involve suffering. But our Lord commands it. So it's onward and upward.
-Sir Cerebral