Just a few thought

I'm not generally one for getting all emo or airing out my frustrations online, but sometimes I get tired of having to keep it to myself--to sit here realizing no one cares about how they've made me feel. That no matter how hard I try to swallow my wants and needs, the second I mention one I'm labeled "selfish" and told I think it's "all about me". After I've given all I can, I'm never looked at with an eye that judges my workload or a heart sincere in considering my thoughts and concerns. It's about what they want, instead. How my inability to do what they want right now is a terrible inconvenience to them.

I got to thinking about a quote from Power of Myth, a book of an interview with Joseph Campbell I read this summer. The book discusses the myths in our lives and what's thought of as important to humans by virtue of the myths we create. At one point Campbell starts on the idea of dragons:

"... There are people like that, and we call them creeps. There's no life from them, no giving. They just glue themselves to you and hang around and try to suck out of you their life."

What happens when you realize that those dragons are the people you love the most? The ones you'd do anything for? What do you do when you need them to take a moment--not one in a disaster or when you're at your most helpless physically, but when you just need to know someone sees you as important enough to take a minute. Just a minute. To look, to see, to talk. To experience something that's important to me. Or to support me in a decision. To nod and say "I understand" rather than "Why did you do that?" or "Couldn't you just..." with some version of events that works better towards their ends.

I don't know why I feel so compelled right now to share this, except I imagine I'm not the only one. Maybe someone out there needs to know they aren't alone in fighting the dragons.