24 ⚜ Anonymous Text / CW: abuse mentions

[restingstitchface]

Whether a man is a criminal or a hero is a matter of perspective.

But if you don't want to play your role anymore, and are removed from your motivation for being who you are, what do you do? Do you seek redemption and rehabilitation and transform as an individual, or do you repeat negative behavior? How much do you believe people change only because they are imPorted? In short, do you believe people can change?

If I had anybody willing to discuss this in private with me, I assure you, I'd not be raising the issue publically.

Thank you in advance.

Comments

[restingstitchface]

Negative behavior can be defined as that produced in absence of a stimulus. Now. Is all negative behavior criminal? No. Yet, negative behavior can turn criminal. Like you say, it is very much a matter of perspective.

Do you think the loss of a parent or guardian produces grief and regret?

[am_i_a_monster]

I think the grief can start before the parent is actually lost. If a parent turns monstrous, there can be grief for the way the parent used to be. Or regret, blaming yourself for the way they changed. The actual loss can be a sense of relief after something like that. But there can still be grief and loss too.

[restingstitchface]

What a fascinating opinion. Grief and loss... they feel so much like fear, don't they?

[am_i_a_monster]

C.S Lewis would agree. I guess I do too. Fear's a part of just about everything.

[restingstitchface]

[Oh. Oh. The child likes literature!]

Fascinating.

Where isn't it present in your opinion?

[Which is wrong btw. Let him educate you.]

[am_i_a_monster]

Good question.

When you're petting a dog.

[restingstitchface]

People underestimate the damage a domesticated animal can inflict. The danger is always there.

Anyway. You're a dog-lover, then?

[am_i_a_monster]

I know someone who is.

[restingstitchface]

Likewise.

But I do not believe in naming friends. It breaks a confidence.

[am_i_a_monster]

You keep it a secret who your friends are. That's interesting. Are they dangerous people?

[restingstitchface]

I suppose so.

Everyone holds the potential to be dangerous, don't they? All minds have a limit. And what about you? Are your friends dangerous people?

[am_i_a_monster]

Not everyone. The people that aren't dangerous just don't last long.

My friendships are complicated.

[restingstitchface]

You're wrong about that. Friendships are emotional ties of need. Human behavior is fascinatingly predictable. Therefore, so are friendships by association.

[am_i_a_monster]

My friends were anything but predictable.

[restingstitchface]

I see. Then do you believe in free will? Or perhaps your friends were driven more by impulse than judgment?

[am_i_a_monster]

You don't ask easy questions, do you?

We're all born with a DNA blueprint and into families that can really mess us up. The whole nature vs. nurture thing, right? Is it ever free will or just what we were born with and learned that leads our impulses and judgement?

One of my friends has a gift for seeing things from other people's points of view. Sometimes I wonder if that changes him? Maybe he's influenced every time he gets into someone else's head and their will can get mixed up with his own.

If anyone had free will, then it was someone else I knew. He was unique though.

[restingstitchface]

Fascinating.

But I would prefer to discuss your friend. Our behaviors change as a result of stimulus, as previously mentioned. When isolating one specific state of mind, does he struggle to separate his mantled perspective from reality?

[am_i_a_monster]

I used to think that he struggled with it. It used to scare me; I worried that he might think like someone else. I'm not sure now. I was wrong about a lot of things.

[restingstitchface]

Better to be aware of how wrong and small you are than to believe the opposite and have it proven. Though if I don't know his name I can't tell you how right or wrong you are. You do realize this?

[am_i_a_monster]

I know that. The only person that knows for certain what's in his mind is him.

[restingstitchface]

He sounds like one in a million. The two of you seem to care about each other a great deal.

[am_i_a_monster]

I think we do. We have shared certain experiences that no one else would understand.

[restingstitchface]

He is a man who attracts people. Be that as it may, I understand the uniqueness of your experience. Though my connection is not with your friend in particular.

[am_i_a_monster]

He attracts some people and scares others away.

Who are you connected to?

[restingstitchface]

Now, now. I'll tell you my secret if you tell me yours.

[In private, of course.]