Fear and Loathing

A good friend of mine, an intelligent, kind, funny and beautiful woman had started hearing a ticking sound in her ear.  It was starting to worry her so she finally went to see a doctor and he told her, “Well honey, what do you expect, you’re not getting any younger.  The ticking of your biological clock is only going to get louder.  Better get a move on.”    

My friend then moved to crazy-town, into a nice cozy bungalow on Anxiety Lane, down the street from Hand-wringing Central and north of Twitchy-eye Heights.  She became a predator, engaging men just to apply inquisition like tactics to determine ‘husband and father’ potential -- she left a mutilated and bloody trail.

The last time I saw her she handed me a wedding invitation with one shaky hand while the other sank her nails into the arm of her fiancee.  Her vivid blue eyes, restlessly searched for something just over my shoulder.  Her deep red lips stretched across her face in an insincere smile, her body constantly in motion shadow boxing with a prevailing unease.

She was an intelligent, kind, funny and beautiful woman who bought the hype, who buckled under the pressure to conform, who became a stereotype, who thoroughly lost herself.  

So long as we continue to conform we will fear our ‘biological clock’ and loathe the creatures we become.

Let’s be clear: you are conforming when you feel you are betraying who you are and what you want just to please something (society/culture/traditions) or someone.