No one scolds me. No one condemns me.
And yet, someone in my head quietly creates a standard,
and when I fail to meet it, I am slowly tightened by this vague thing called “guilt”.
But does that guilt actually have any legitimacy or coherence?
It might be worth looking at it again. Truly.
If you look closely, it does appear to be constructed with reasons and logic.
But what about the foundation beneath it?
Isn’t it possible that the ground itself is little more than an illusion?
Yes, there is information placed there as evidence.
But most of it is not something I have lived through.
It is merely what I have seen or heard, adopted without question.
Some voice tells me I seek happiness as the exception,
yet warns that misfortune makes no exceptions.
That contradiction is spoken so confidently.
In truth, it all feels rather simple.
See it that way, and that is how it appears.
Hear it that way, and that is how it sounds.
Life does not unfold exactly as we wish.
But perhaps it unfolds exactly as we perceive it.
And so, while indulging in such thoughts,
I eat ramen late at night.