“I watched you undress. Shame on you!”
― Ljupka Cvetanova, The New Land

Life seems to direct tedious obstacles onto our path at times. Perhaps this is for growth, perhaps it is to make us stop to reevaluate and focus our efforts, or perhaps this is a simple rule of life, in that it’s just simply part of the game that we all must play.

But no matter the reason, it happens.

Despite my own personal obstacles and time constraints, I’ve been trying to maintain a consistent effort to write posts, network and respond to those who reach out to me on a frequent basis. However, over the past couple of weeks my WordPress account has been suffering repeated hacking attempts requiring me to reset passwords. For what reason I have no idea, but what I do know is that this is quite irritating.

So I must apologize for my recent lull in activity.

But this brings me to a thought that lives within the ether of our seemingly advanced society; the thought of one’s own personal kingdom being viewed and sabotaged remotely, by anyone with the skill and know-how to do so.

For what purpose do our voyeuristic tendencies render us oblivious to our own lives? Why would we concern ourselves with a total stranger’s life in place of living our own life?

The answer is easy to find.

In the past, the technology available to promote the drive of a typical peeping Tom was nothing more than a decent hiding spot and a pair of binoculars. Today, however, one can hide in his own home, in his car or while walking around in plain sight.

The tools available with today’s social media platforms nearly promote voyeurism as well as fueling a voyeuristic mindset. And just a note, this doesn’t have to be only sexual in nature as the term denotes.

Today it has become normal to observe others from afar, with no one aware of who is actually observing us. In fact, it is as if we are being guided to share more, to be more flamboyant, to engage with those who we would otherwise never engage with in “real” life.

Our privacy has been suspended as our digital lives fill the world with versions of a person that one would most likely never find outside of social media.

And we all need to ask ourselves why.

Why is the need to be noticed so important? Is it to attain a form of confidence? Is it to feel welcomed? To feel loved?

I’ll say this.. something is missing.

What’s missing is the part of us that we wish to share with the world, but sadly this is also the part that most cannot reveal. This is the true self, the true reflection of who we really are, both beautiful and horrid, flawless and flawed.

In baring our truest self, we will find that it matters little what others think, what others “like” or what others might say or comment about us. Because in this moment of perfect revealing we become free, we become what we truly are, we simply become, and this is too much for most to understand, least of all ourselves.

Now, there is nothing wrong with following someone because you resonate with or appreciate what they share. Many of us out here are sharing to promote inspiration and endearment, but there is also a fine line between altruism and vanity. The latter being quite easy to spot.

But for those voyeurs with nothing better to do with their time aside from worrying about what another person is doing, or for those who wish to make it difficult for others to pursue activities and work that they enjoy, I’ll simply say this:

View your own life. Learn to know who you really are, and then you’ll find that maybe YOU are much more interesting than those you’re viewing from afar. Perhaps then, what others do with their time will seem just as tedious and trivial as your own attempts to disrupt another persons life.

Find your life, and find your truth.

Because we must all find our truth.

And we should all leave others to find theirs as well, in peace.