Glass Castles

Death is a foreign idea. Maybe you had a grandparent or other family member who died when you were a child, but still you did not understand. Your parents were sad, and maybe you were a little sad too, but the true gravity of what happened was too great for such a young mind. We were too young to understand that soul passing into oblivion. Too young to know that never again would you hear the person's voice, or see the glint in their eyes. Never again, but we were too young to know.

I am coming to the age where the realizations of life are dawning on me. Well, 'dawning' is too soft of word. I am coming to the point were the truths of life are ramming me in the face like trains. The heaviest and the fastest of these trains is the one that carries our mortality. Not only this, but it also carries the fragility of our mortality. Lately, event after event has flung death in my face. I've seen it affect people I care about, and the shadow is creeping ever closer to my safe little circle. With this looming entity I've realized a great many things.

We are fragile. Everything we do, and everything we know is so incredibly fragile. The vast networks we reach out to are nothing but spider webs, though we imagine them as thick webs of steel. As young people we tend to think we are untouchable. Nothing in the world can harm us. Our securities border on feeling immortal. But this is not the case. We humans are oh so very mortal. The lives we build are naught but glass castles, but we fool ourselves into thinking they are stone. Once the illusion fades, and experience brings the sparkle of the glass to our attention, we often will try to 'fix' the fragility of the structure. The issue here is that, no matter how thick the walls we build are, no matter how strong the foundations; the walls are still made of glass. They may hold stronger against blows than the thinner counterparts, but the wind will still wear at them, and the cracks will still appear. One day the final blow will strike, and even the strongest fortress will shatter.

This is the nature of our lives.

We cannot bow before this fragility. We cannot give in as soon as the first crack appears. We must live, and we must do this well. We must stare our mortality in the eyes, and declare that we will not hide. Nothing can stop us from living to be the best that we can be.

So build your castles of glass. Build them to be the most stunning structures you could imagine. Construct towering spires and ridges, arcs and statues and many beautiful things. That's the thing about glass castles; they could be the most beautiful, fantastical thing. They could shatter light into a thousand rainbows, reflect and refract and glisten. The walls are most beautiful when they are fragile. Don't build your life as a thick fortress with stunted columns and little beauty, take the risk and make something amazing. Wouldn't you rather spend your short time in a beautiful life, rather than extend a gray miserable life just for the sake of living a little bit longer? Build your glass castles my friends, and build them well, because they are what you have for the rest of your life.