In the act of living we must accept certain things to be true: our Foundations of Reality
- the way things are supposed to be.
We get up each morning and believe that the sun will rise.
We have faith that gravity will still be functional.
We are confident that we are the same person, living from behind the same pair of eyes.
The way I see it, to be a happy person you must be confident
In not only these overarching natural forces that govern the universe - science, philosophy, religion, chaos…
But also in the people around you - family, friends, peers...
And, possibly foremost, in yourself.

But what happens when we lose our confidence in our reality?
What happens - how do we react - when we look out and we see a landscape that does not conform to the images inside our heads? Our hearts?
There is nothing more terrible in this world than having nothing to believe in.
Nothing that you can be confident of.
Nothing that you can stand on.

When this happens, we become “disillusioned”.

*
We have grown tall enough to pull aside the veil of “well-being”
That reflects to us a fair world in which life is good and just and the bad guys always get caught
And we have gazed upon a hidden land: the one everyone tries to pretend is not there
Yet the one that persists in existing
- we could just as easily demolish our sewer system and live contentedly.
We see the misfortune, the corruption, the shirking of duty of those in charge
We smell the stagnation of progress
We hear the strangled cries of the oppressed
We lose our confidence in society.

*
We have lived and laughed and talked for years
With those who we previously assumed permanent installations in our lives
But now we feel the tension mounting when we realize that we no longer share the same views
Or have glimpsed the dragons beneath the skins of those we held in high regard not so long ago
Lost in friends,
Lost in parental units,
We lose our confidence in those surrounding us.

*
We have gone along thinking from “the protagonist’s” point of view
“Normal” is defined by whoever we happen to be.
Then something occurs to make us turn around,
Look in the mirror, and realize something’s wrong.
Too big, too small, too smart, too dumb, too rich, too poor…
We lose confidence in ourselves.

*
With one or more of these Foundations lost, what do we decide?
To fight?
To scream?
To run?
To die?
To slam our doors shut and throw away our keys?

I am a teenager
I have felt these things, thought these thoughts...
But I have to believe that there’s a better comeback to reality’s refusal to conform to expectations
Or the other way around, if that’s the case.
If you give it the chance, the world is in fact a big enough place
To provide reason for us all to replace whatever confidence we have lost
In ourselves, our people, and whatever overarching structures our realities include.

But we have to give the world a chance.