in allegory of the cave by plato, there are prisoners chained to a wall and forced to look at shadows produced by people and objects moving down a walkway in between the prisoners and a fire. the prisoners can only see the shadows produced on the wall, and that is all they have ever known. one day one prisoner is freed, and leaves the cave, only to be overwhelmed and alienated by what he sees outside. He returns to the cave to perhaps seek shelter in its darkness, and attempts to tell the other prisoners what he has witnessed. he cannot see the shadows as he used to and the prisoners cannot understand what he says he has witnessed on the outside. they grow angry and resist his story, and he is left in perpetual conflict from his experience. Plato likely intended for this story to symbolize futile attempts to spread his philosophies amongst the masses, whom he considered to be living in comfortable ignorance. His philosophies sought to challenge the pillars of society and social convention, and make people think. unfortunately many people disliked them because they had learned to function symbiotically with these ideals, no matter how conflicting and harmful they might be. Relating to my personal experiences, there have been many times where I felt I gained information which challenged things I thought I knew. Certainly as a white man there are many things that I do not think about because they do not affect me, but that does not mean that they are any less real. Learning about behavioral patterns and psychology was similar; there were interactions or dynamics I had with people that made no sense, or that I took at face value early in my life. Later I would learn that something I thought was my fault, may not have been, or vice versa. There was another notable period in my life, when I began to think about my own existence, as many people do, trying to perceive my own existence and questioning it. I would tear myself apart over thoughts of meaninglessness, loneliness, and deep existential dread. It grew to be such an unbearable festering wound in my mind, but one day I realized that as quickly as these thoughts has entered my brain — they could leave. life had not changed except for the way i thought, and although that is arguably a major change, there was no reason i could not seek refuge in the way i had thought before. Only ever being happy and comfortable is not what life is about, but neither is being tortured, or torturing yourself. The beauty of being alive is the balance of everything and sometimes these chains which society places upon itself are less chains and more a stencil for living in semi sanity, based on centuries of human thought and life. Nothing is perfect and these chains and stencils will always change, and that is the beauty of life.