[Vulnerability & Power - VII]
How far into the woods would you have to move to safely hide from everyone that potentially could hurt you? How deep would the cave need to be. How fortified the bunker?
Hiding from others certainly protects you from exposure. It’s also where shame festers, where your nightmares haunt, and where your inner demons attack uninhibited.
In the presence of others, however, is where you are most threatened. To be exposed. To lose your ability to hide. But it’s also out in the open, in the gaze of listening friends and beloved others that light is cast on shame, nightmares halt, and demons are suffocated.
Others are dangerous, sometimes poisonous, and always at some level a threat.
Others can also be healing ointment and have the potential to shield us from our worst self.
Running from others is temporarily safe (and sometimes necessary). Running toward others is the only way to find lasting safety (and must be done with caution).
