We all have physical presence in the world and present a face to others, but the person we meet and share time with does not exist.
You do not exist.
You are in fact a ghost, and no-one will ever know you. This is because you are someone different to everyone you meet, hero to some, villain to others. There is nothing you can do to alter this perception others have of you.
We are all ghosts; who lie and pretend that things are this way or that to fit in, rather than be honestly present in the moment and tell people the truth. It is easier for us to conform and say the things we are meant to say than it is to genuinely tell people how they really feel.
Honesty can be punished by others, and friends may evaporate. You may sabotage a promotion or a love interest by being present and standing in your truth. We ghosts are designed to be shallow and echo the things we’ve heard others say. And so we go about our daily lives lying to others and to ourselves as well just to fit in.
With a whole society doing this, you quickly realise that meaningless platitudes rule the world and nobody says what they should. For example you have had a rotten headache all morning but if someone asks “how are you?” more than likely you will respond with “fine, thank you.” you will smile through the pain.
Thus we are all vapid lonely spirits not telling how things are, or why we feel the way we do. We pretend and hide behind masks until the end of the day and then we relax into our real thoughts. It may follow that sleep is not possible due to the backlog of thoughts that one did not process during the day, they will all return now to haunt and belittle in the dark.
Why do this?
The only chance you have of maintaining any sort of drug free sanity in this life is to be consistent in your presentation and turn up as yourself. No mask, no shallow conformity.
What are you afraid of? Being lonely? Well that happens regardless, and the loneliness in a group is far more isolating that simply sitting alone. You may as well be your own genuine self, and you never know you might encourage others to do the same! Finding at least one other honest outspoken person can be enough to keep you sane for decades to come.
It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it!