People are just too afraid
Of truth
Of growing
Of interacting
Of being wrong
Of learning anything
And of making any changes.
They are much more comfortable
Half the time having their eyes shut than opened.
And it occurs to me at this moment
What lousy parents and teachers they must have had
To have never learned the immense value of these things.
But there’s another possibility,
Which is that they might have
Been the sort all along
Who are, at their core, simply
Stubborn and unwilling to
Deal responsibly with their immature
and sometimes-wrong selves,
And who seize the slightest
Opportunity for excuse.
Or in other words,
Whether they had good
Parents and teachers or not,
They have not decided to
Manage their own minds
With that sort of good care—
And shy away from anything
That might tend to highlight
That ugly fact.
