Choice?

They say, “to use or not to use” is a choice.
They—the anonymous majority who defines truth—say a lot of things.
They are the self-proclaimed experts who demarcate your worth by calling you names.
Names which reveal, unbeknownst to them, where their values and fears lie.
Names which isolate, feeding their rationale to never have to come close enough to understand.
According to them, your choice “not to use” is judged to be a “success,” but subject to the expected measurable sustainability of that choice—for life.

To them, choice is irrelevant to what you are going through, what you have been through, and what you will be going through.
To them, choice is independent of your tormented soul; choice is “yes” or “no.”

To you, life consists of today.
Your life hinges on obliterating the choices you were not given yesterday, the day before yesterday, and all the other yesterdays before—for as long as you choose to remember—when you were subjected to someone else’s choice—someone or something stronger than you—taking advantage of your inability to choose.

To you, “success” is that exact moment in which you choose to make a decision that gives you hope; even though you are paralyzed by the overwhelming awareness that you might be setting yourself up for failure—purposefully choosing to ignore it in a blur of desperation—grasping at the freedom to make one right choice within your reach today, and if not today, tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow . . .

The choice to use, to choose to exert power over your present life, to detach yourself from all the other choices which were made for you, will sustain life—your life, lived one more day.